A Few Things Ill Considered

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Another week of Climate Disruption News

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

February 7, 2010

• Chuckles, COP15, Copenhagen Accord, Scorecard, COP16 & Beyond, DSDS, G77 & BASIC, Mann
• FOI as a Weapon, Greenpeace UK, CRU Slugfest Bottom Line, RETECH 2010, Grumbine, WEF, Cold Snap, Solomon
• Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics
• Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, Food Production
• Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate
• ENSO, Milankovitch Cycles, Climate Sensitivity, Solar, Abrupt CC, Satellites
• Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Wildfires, Corals, Acidification, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Floods & Droughts
• Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering
• Journals, Other Docs , Misc. Science, DIY Science, Hansen, Pachauri, Alley
• Kyoto, Carbon Trade, Phishing Attack, Optimal Carbon Reduction Strategy, Security, Law & Activism, Polls
• America, Obama, Congress, Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Asia, South America, Canada
• Ecological Economics, Apocalypso, Media, Books, Courts
• Energy, Fracking, Wind, Solar, Coal, Biofuel, Nukes, Peak Oil, Grid, Efficiency, Cars, Insurance
• Joe's List, Carbon Lobby, Miscellaneous Climate, Useful Links
• Shameless Self Promotion, .sig

Here's a wee chuckle for ye:

• 2010/02/06: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Another Hell in Another Handcart
• 2010/02/02: TI:CF: (cartoon - Roberts) Sons of the sod
• 2010/02/05: QuarkSoup: (cartoon - Morland) Skeptics
• 2010/02/05: uComics: (cartoon - Rall) Obama Launches A New Tactic...
• 2010/02/05: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) Hot4U
• 2010/02/04: HotTopic: (cartoon - Morland) Spot the 'sceptic'
• 2010/02/01: uComics: (cartoon - Toles) The Green Jobs
• 2010/01/31: ERabett: Received from Rabett Run's special Onion correspondent

  This is a political story but, Jerry Brown's suggested renaming is funny (and accurate):

• 2010/02/05: LA Times:GS: Jerry Brown's global warming revenge?
  Backers of a proposed ballot initiative to suspend California's landmark global warming initiative are threatening to sue Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown over the cumbersome title and summary his office attached to their "California Jobs Initiative," reports our sister blog, PolitiCal. Rather than adopt the sponsor's catchy title, Brown has dubbed it: "Suspends air pollution control laws requiring major polluters to report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming."

Copenhagen post mortems continue:

• 2010/02/02: CasaubonsBook: Copenhagen Failed, Mexico is Already Doomed - What's Next?
• 2010/02/01: TCoE: Copenhagen report card: We flunk
• 2010/02/02: BBC: Copenhagen - the Munich of our times?
  The Copenhagen Climate Accord was a failure of historic proportions that is hardly worth the paper it is printed on, says Malini Mehra. In this week's Green Room, she says climate negotiations need to adopt a new approach that can overcome barriers like national self-interest. "We are making a huge miscalculation by allowing the major emitters knowingly to sacrifice the poor and vulnerable parts of the world in exchange for their 'right to pollute'"
• 2010/02/01: CI: Beyond Brokenhagen -- Business and Climate Change in the Post-Copenhagen Era

  Comments on the Copenhagen Accord:

• 2010/01/: US CAN: Who's On Board With The Copenhagen Accord?
• 2010/02/03: CFO: Mixed welcome for Copenhagen Accord pledges
  Carbon market participants have given a mixed reception to the proposed emissions cuts and mitigation actions pledged under the Copenhagen Accord. By the 31 January deadline, 55 countries accounting for 78% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions had notified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat of their reduction targets or mitigation plans. NGO US Climate Action Network last night said this had risen to 87 countries, representing just over 80% of global emissions. Most of the pledged cuts or limitation plans are little changed from those announced pre-Copenhagen. The one notable exception is Canada, which has changed its target to match that of the US, for a 17% cut on 2005 levels by 2020 -- in effect, allowing the country's GHGs to grow by 3% compared with 1990 emissions. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada committed to cut its emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012, a target since abandoned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
• 2010/02/05: GreenGrok: World Takes the Climate Pledge, Sort Of
• 2010/02/04: SolveClimate: More than a Quarter of World's Poorest States 'Associate' with Copenhagen Accord -- Fears of Losing $30 Billion 'Fast-Start' Cash a Driver
• 2010/02/03: HindustanTimes: BASIC nations drift away from Copenhagen [Accord]
  Less than two months after agreeing to the Copenhagen accord, India, China, Brazil and South Africa, or Basic countries, have moved away from the accord in their communication on domestic mitigation action submitted to the UN. Till end of January, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) received national pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gases by 2020 from 55 countries, which account for 78 per cent of total global emissions from energy use. The BASIC countries were among the 26 nations that formulated the accord which Copenhagen conference took note of. "We support Copenhagen accord," Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh said after a meeting with ministers of BASIC countries on January 24.
Things have changed since then. "Any domestic mitigation action can only be under UNFCCC," said an environment ministry official. "Copenhagen accord has to be part of the UN negotiations process under the Long term Cooperative Action (LCA) and Kyoto Protocol negotiating tracks."
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen pledges fall short of 2C target, says UN climate chief
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Fifty-five countries pledge to cut greenhouse emissions
  UN hails 'important step', but 137 nations yet to make promise
• 2010/02/02: EurActiv: Fifty-five nations join Copenhagen climate accord
  Fifty-five countries accounting for almost 80% of world greenhouse gas emissions have pledged varying goals for fighting climate change under a deadline in the "Copenhagen Accord", the United Nations said on Monday.
• 2010/02/02: NatureTGB: Copenhagen climate accord: countries submit commitments [55/193]
• 2010/02/03: PlanetArk: Poor Give Muted Backing To Copenhagen Climate Deal
• 2010/02/01: France24: Climate accord gets boost, but where's the money?
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: Top UN Climate Official [Janos Pasztor] Confirms Nations' Climate Pledges Won't Contain Global Temperature Rise
• 2010/02/01: BBC: Fifty-five countries have submitted pledges for curbing greenhouse gas emissions to the UN climate convention
• 2010/02/01: Telegraph(UK): Climate change targets 'disappointing'
  The climate change deal signed in Copenhagen last year is looking weaker than ever after fewer than half of the countries that took part in negotiations managed to meet the latest deadline to fight global warming.
• 2010/02/01: TreeHugger: World's Nations Set Emissions Reduction Targets: Who's Pledging What?
• 2010/02/01: Reuters: New Zealand to sign up to Copenhagen Accord
• 2010/02/01: STimes: UN says nations' greenhouse gas pledges too little
  The greenhouse gas goals announced by the nations responsible for most emissions are insufficient against the disastrous effects of climate change, a U.N. official [Janos Pasztor] said Monday.
• 2010/01/31: Reuters: Copenhagen climate deal gets low-key endorsement
  Countries submit plans for Copenhagen Accord - Deadline of Jan. 31, but flexible - Fall short of goal of limiting warming to 2 C
• 2010/01/31: BBC: Governments around the world have reaffirmed their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions in support of last month's Copenhagen climate summit
• 2010/02/01: People's Daily: Maldives pledges 100 percent mitigation target under Copenhagen Accord...to go carbon neutral by 2020...

  Another fine example of spinning headlines:

• 2010/02/02: EUO: Few countries submit climate pledges by deadline
• 2010/02/02: UN: Bulk of emitters submit climate pledges to UN convention

  A handy scorecard for Copenhagen Accord pledges:

• 2010/01/: US CAN: Who's On Board With The Copenhagen Accord?

  Regarding COP16 and/or future global climate initiatives:

• 2010/02/06: NBF: China Indicates They Will Not be Locked to a Lower Economic Level by Taking Lower Per Capita Greenhouse Gases
• 2010/02/05: BWeek: India Says UN Is Central to Climate Change Talks
• 2010/02/04: VoA: UN Climate Chief Contends Framework by Global Body Still Best Way Forward
• 2010/02/04: BBerg: U.S.-Led Climate Pact Can´t Replace Global Consensus, UN Says
• 2010/02/05: EarthTimes: UN framework central to climate change talks, says Indian premier
  New Delhi - The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must remain central to global cooperation on climate issues, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday. Singh, delivering the inaugural address at the annual Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, said he was disappointed "with the limited achievements of the discussions that took place in Copenhagen," which did not produce a "negotiated set of legal obligations." He said that India "fully support[s]" the voluntary accord that was signed at the December summit, but that this should not be considered a "substitute" for long-term, binding agreements within the UNFCCC. He said that negotiations on the two-track process, which would set different targets for developed and developing countries, should "recommence in right earnest."
• 2010/02/02: NatureCC: The road from Copenhagen: the experts' views
• 2010/02/02: NatureCF: The road from Copenhagen -- several experts on what they consider to be the most important milestones on the road from Copenhagen
• 2010/02/02: PlanetArk: China's Wen Seeks Binding Climate Deal In Mexico
• 2010/02/02: WWI: As Climate Talks Stumble, U.N. Process in Question
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): Chances of Copenhagen climate talks 'rematch' unlikely, say experts
  Politicians, diplomats, economists, scientists and campaigners scale back ambitions for UN meeting in Mexico later this year
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): Experts on the chances of a global climate deal working in Mexico in 2010
• 2010/02/01: PlanetArk: World May Not Do Climate Deal This Year
• 2010/02/01: Grist: Where things stand on the Copenhagen Accord and international climate politics
• 2010/02/01: TreeHugger: COP16 is Ten Months Away & Expectation Management Has Already Begun
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): Global deal on climate change in 2010 'all but impossible' [says John Prescott]

  The Delhi Sustainable Development Summit happened this week:

• 2010/02/05: AllAfrica: The 10th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit
  The Delhi Sustainable Development Summit is a unique high level global forum organised by TERI for the analysis and debate on some of the most crucial environmental and climate change challenges being faced by humanity at large. Informed discussions among participants from governments, international agencies, corporate organisations and institutes provide critical mass, for formulation and delineation of strategies to take the sustainable development agenda forward. This event is the first major gathering of leaders post COP15, Copenhagen, Denmark with about 20 Heads of States and many more ministers in attendance. The overarching theme for this year is Beyond Copenhagen: New Pathways to Sustainable Development.
• 2010/02/05: VoA: Several Heads of States Renew Call for Binding Climate Treaty [at DSDS]
• 2010/02/04: ZeeNews: World leaders to gather for Delhi sustainable summit

  The relationship of the G77 & BASIC groups is up in the air, as nations pursue their own interests:

• 2010/02/04: IndiaTimes: India asks G-77 to stay united over climate change talks
  United Nations: India has asked the Group of 77 developing countries to stay united to see that climate change negotiations address "the glaring injustice that those worst affected by climate change are the least responsible for it". "The G-77 must remain united as we strive to redress this injustice," India' s Permanent Representative to the UN, Hardeep Singh Puri, said Wednesday at a meeting here of the group on brainstorming on climate change issues.

Penn State has largely exonerated Michael Mann:

• 2010/02/05: JEB: Mann cleared (almost)
• 2010/02/04: MoD: Mann exonerated, deniers claim this proves a conspiracy
• 2010/02/04: NatureTGB: CRU affair: Penn State clears Mike Mann of misconduct allegations
• 2010/02/03: ScienceInsider: Climate Scientist Mann Partially Absolved by Penn State
• 2010/02/04: ClimateP: Penn State inquiry finds no evidence for allegations against Michael Mann -- "Hockey Stick" scientist vindicated once again
• 2010/02/03: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Melting Climategate: The Vindication of Scientist Michael Mann
• 2010/02/04: TreeHugger: Climategate Scientist Michael Mann Cleared of Most Serious Allegations
• 2010/02/03: NYT: Researcher on Climate [Dr. Michael E. Mann] Is Cleared in Inquiry
• 2010/02/04: CCP: 'Hockey stick' graph creator Michael Mann cleared of academic misconduct
• 2010/02/03: TPL: Mann Exonerated
• 2010/02/03: DeSmogBlog: Climate Skeptics Try To Spin Penn State Exoneration of Dr. Michael Mann Into "Whitewash"
• 2010/02/03: D-HW: Mann cleared of allegations of research misconduct
• 2010/02/03: Guardian(UK): 'Hockey stick' graph creator Michael Mann cleared of academic misconduct
• 2010/02/03: S&R: Three of four misconduct allegations against Michael Mann found to be without merit (updated)
• 2010/02/03: NewScientist: US 'climategate' scientist [Mann] all but cleared of misconduct
• 2010/02/03: ERabett: Michael Mann Exonerated
• 2010/02/03: BCLSB: The State of Mann
• 2010/02/03: PSU: ESSC Director [Dr. Michael] Mann comments on Penn State RA-10 Inquiry
• 2010/02/03: DeSmogBlog: Penn State inquiry finds no evidence for allegations against Michael Mann

  The story of how FOI laws are being used as a weapon is coming out:

• 2010/02/07: Times(UK): The leak was bad. Then came the death threats
  Phil Jones said he and his colleagues were targeted by climate change sceptics
  [...]
  Last year in July alone the unit received 60 FoI requests from across the world. With a staff of only 13 to cope with them, the demands were accumulating faster than they could be dealt with. "According to the rules," says Jones, "you have to do 18 hours' work on each one before you're allowed to turn it down." It meant that the scientists would have had a lot of their time diverted from research. A further irritation was that most of the data was available online, making the FoI requests, in Jones's view, needless and a vexatious waste of his time. In the circumstances, he says, he thought it reasonable to refer the applicants to the website of the Historical Climatology Network in the US.
• 2010/02/06: ClimateShifts: Phil Jones and 'climategate': "The leak was bad. Then came the death threats."
  This article (surprisingly enough from the usually right-leaning Times newspaper) is striking in it's honesty. I'm not condoning Jones's actions regarding the FOI, but given the following response, it's understandable (back of the envelope calculations: 60 FOI requests in a single month, at 18hrs per request is 1080hrs, or 27 weeks of work of work. With a staff of 13, over half of that month would be dedicated to responding to FOI requests alone -- that's alot of time not doing science. Wait, maybe that's the point?):
• 2010/02/04: BSD: CEI requests a significant percent of all records produced by NASA

  What happened here?

• 2010/02/05: TreeHugger: Correction: Greenpeace UK Not Calling for IPCC Chairman Pachauri to Step Aside
• 2010/02/04: Guardian(UK): Environmental groups split over calls for IPCC boss to resign
  Friends of the Earth defend Pachauri, while Greenpeace says a new leader may restore faith in UN panel
• 2010/02/04: TreeHugger: A New Call For IPCC Chair Pachauri to Resign... From Greenpeace UK??

  The Pachauri, IPCC, climate science slugfest continues:

• 2010/02/06: UN: Top UN environment official defends conclusions of landmark climate change report
  The great weight of science still supports the findings in a landmark 2007 report from a United Nations-backed panel of experts that global warming is man-made, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said today following recent attacks from climate change sceptics over a mistake in the assessment. Defending the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) against criticism for a mistake made in its 2007 report over the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers would melt, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said that the panel has drawn upon the expertise of thousands of the best scientific minds for some 22 years.
• 2010/02/05: CSW: Questions to an IPCC co-chair on ensuring the credibility of IPCC leadership and communications
• 2010/02/02: QuarkSoup: The IPCC's Glacier Error
  Look, mistakes happen. They don't undo science that is 150+ years old.
• 2010/02/06: DWWSJ: Yale Climate and Media Analysis of IPCC Glacier Mistake
• 2010/02/04: CCurrents: No Apology From IPCC Chief Rajendra Pachauri For Glacier Fallacy
• 2010/02/03: Independent(UK): Scientist in climate row [Professor Phil Jones] speaks out
  Academic breaks silence to deny covering up flawed data about global warming
• 2010/02/05: Stoat: Anatomy of IPCC's Mistake on Himalayan Glaciers and Year 2035
• 2010/02/05: Guardian(UK): Climate emails cannot destroy proof that humans are warming the planet
• 2010/02/05: Guardian(UK): Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh backs IPCC boss Rajendra Pachauri
• 2010/02/05: Guardian(UK): The IPCC's problems have been compounded by its imperious attitude [says Mike Hulme]
• 2010/02/05: Guardian(UK): If you're going to do good science, release the computer code too
• 2010/02/05: ScienceInsider: Indian Prime Minister Lends Support To IPCC, Pachauri
• 2010/02/05: KSJT: Yale Climate-Media Forum: Is there a curse on the IPCC that has infected reporters too?
• 2010/02/05: PhysOrg: Netherlands adds to UN climate report controversy [26%]
• 2010/02/05: Stoat: Indians go wacko
• 2010/02/05: Yahoo:AFP: Indian PM backs UN climate panel
  Indian Premier Manmohan Singh on Friday lent his support to the beleaguered UN climate change panel, saying a glaring error in the body's key 2007 report did not change the science of global warming.
• 2010/02/05: NatureCF: Indian Prime Minister backs IPCC
• 2010/02/04: YaleCMF: Undoing 'The Curse' of a Chain of Errors -- Anatomy of IPCC's Mistake on Himalayan Glaciers and Year 2035 by Bidisha Banerjee and George Collins
• 2010/02/05: Deltoid: Reporting about 2035 error full of errors
• 2010/02/05: BBC: Embattled climate chief supported
  India has firmly backed climate change chief Rajendra Pachauri - who has been under attack over recent scientific errors - at UN-led talks in Delhi. PM Manmohan Singh said India had "full confidence" in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its chairman, Dr Pachauri. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, previously critical of the IPCC, said the government backed him to the hilt. The Delhi talks are the first major climate change forum since Copenhagen.
• 2010/02/04: Guardian(UK): Climate consensus under strain
  We ask a range of experts: what damage has been done by recent criticisms of climate science credibility?
• 2010/02/04: Guardian(UK): Detectives question climate change scientist over email leaks
  University of East Anglia scientist Paul Dennis denies leaking material, but links to climate change sceptics in US drew him to attention of the investigators
• 2010/02/04: RNW(Nl): Sea level blunder enrages Dutch minister
  A United Nations report wrongly claimed that more than half of the Netherlands is currently below sea level. In fact, just 20 percent of the country consists of polders that are pumped dry, and which are at risk of flooding if global warming causes rising sea levels. Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer has ordered a thorough investigation into the quality of the climate reports which she uses to base her policies on.
• 2010/02/03: ScienceInsider: Scientist Disputes Claim of "Bogus" IPCC Reference on Threatened Rainforests
• 2010/02/03: MongaBay: Rainforest expert agrees with IPCC: warns of 'tipping point' for Amazon
• 2010/02/04: ABC(Au): UN climate chief [Yvo de Boer] defends embattled scientist [Rajendra Pachauri]
• 2010/02/04: SkeptiSci: What the IPCC and peer-reviewed science say about Amazonian forests
• 2010/02/04: EarthTimes: UN climate change chief [Yvo de Boer]: No need for IPCC chief [Rajendra] Pachauri to quit
• 2010/02/03: MongaBay: The Amazongate fiasco
• 2010/02/03: Guardian(UK): Climate scientists contradicted spirit of openness by turning down FoI requests
• 2010/02/03: Guardian(UK): Climate scientists have long been targets for sceptics
• 2010/02/03: Guardian(UK): Climate scientists withheld Yamal data despite warnings from senior colleagues
• 2010/02/03: Times(UK): Phil Jones, scientist in climate data row, promises to be more open
• 2010/02/03: TreeHugger: IPCC Chair Says Glacier Mistake Cost Dearly, But Won't Make Personal Apology
• 2010/02/02: CCP: Pachauri taking heat for outside interests from denialists
• 2010/02/03: FAIR: Journalists Examine Teapot Tempests as Real Glaciers Melt
• 2010/02/03: BBC: Harrabin's Notes: Reforming the IPCC
  In his regular column, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin asks how the UN's climate change body may be changed by revelations of purported errors in its key report. The hue and cry for the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri is in full spate, and he is defiantly refusing to apologise personally for the Glaciergate bungle. But we should pause for a moment to ask if this particular manhunt will produce a better system of climate science.
• 2010/02/02: BBC: Climate scientist defends results
  The scientist at the centre of a row over climate change research has defended himself against claims that he manipulated data. Professor Phil Jones, former director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA), said his results "stand up to scrutiny".
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Climate change email scandal shames the university and requires resignations
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Climate scientists: who's who in the hacked email controversy
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Climate scientist at centre of email row defends his research
  Phil Jones denies claims reported in the Guardian that he covered up flawed data on temperature rises
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): No apology from IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri for glacier fallacy
• 2010/02/02: UEA: Statement from the University of East Anglia in response to 'UK scientist hid climate data flaws' (Guardian, 02.02.10)
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Controversy behind climate science's 'hockey stick' graph
  Pioneering graph used by IPCC to illustrate a compelling story of man-made climate change raises questions about transparency
• 2010/02/02: NatureTGB: The Guardian's re-hash of 'climategate'
• 2010/02/02: NatureN: IPCC flooded by criticism -- Climate body slammed for errors and potential conflicts of interest
• 2010/02/02: NatureCF: IPCC: in need of a rethink?
• 2010/02/02: NatureCF: Constructive communication [IPCC]
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Climate change emails between scientists reveal flaws in peer review
• 2010/02/02: ERabett: Eli Concern Trolls
• 2010/02/01: DeSmogBlog: Why Climate Gate is bogus and based on lies
• 2010/02/02: CanWest: The UN's enviro-activist in-chief
• 2010/02/01: MoD: Climatologist [Andrew Weaver] criticizes IPCC, says its conclusions are valid
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): How the 'climategate' scandal is bogus and based on climate sceptics' lies
  Claims based on email soundbites are demonstrably false -- there is manifestly no evidence of clandestine data manipulation
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): Leaked climate change emails scientist 'hid' data flaws
  Key study by East Anglia professor Phil Jones was based on suspect figures
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): Strange case of moving weather posts and a scientist [Phil Jones] under siege
• 2010/02/01: ABC(Au): The credibility of the world's climate change authority has taken another hit, with accusations that it based a claim about disappearing forests on a report by environmental activists
• 2010/01/31: BSD: Pachauri conflict of interest charge pretty murky at this point
• 2010/02/01: Independent(UK): 'Climate emails hacked by spies' -- Interception bore hallmarks of foreign intelligence agency, says expert
• 2010/02/01: TreeHugger: 'Amazongate' is More Sloppy Writing Than Sloppy Science
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): Pachauri fails to get UK support over 'unsubstantiated' climate report claims
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): Global warming: Undeniable evidence
• 2010/02/01: Independent(UK): Britain protests over false melting glacier claims
  Britain has officially expressed its concern to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about lax scientific procedures used by the body which supplies the world with the facts about global warming
• 2010/01/31: BBC: Recent controversies over scientific data have not undermined efforts to tackle global warming, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has insisted

  And on the Bottom Line:

• 2010/02/06: ABC(Au): Arctic melt to cost trillions: report
  [The loss of Arctic Sea ice and snow cover is already costing the world about $US61 billion to $US371 billion annually.] Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $US2.4 trillion to $US24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a new report. "Everybody around the world is going to bear these costs," said Eban Goodstein, a resource economist at Bard College in New York state who co-authored the report, called Arctic Treasure, Global Assets Melting Away.
• 2010/02/05: CanWest: Arctic melting to cost $2.4 trillion U.S. by 2050: Study
• 2010/02/05: CBC: Arctic warming will cost world billions: Pew study

  There was a RETECH 2010 conference this week:

• RETECH 2010 - Renewable Energy Technology Conference & Exhibition
• 2010/02/05: TEC: [RETECH 2010] Economics Must Align with Climate Change
• 2010/02/05: TreeHugger: RETECH 2010: Negotiating the Bumpy Path to a Renewable Future
• 2010/02/05: TreeHugger: RETECH 2010: Municipal Governments Fostering a YIMBY Culture

  Rob Grumbine continues his gentle education series:

• 2010/02/03: MGS: A heuristic for stratospheric cooling

  Late coverage of the WEF:

• 2010/02/05: Australian: Climate of Davos despair
  The ruins of global financial capitalism on display at the World Economic Forum included . . . the dashing of hopes for a deal to save the planet from global warming. Just as the world's top bankers will have to play by different rules after the crisis, global climate action requires a political rethink.

Late comment on the cold snap:

• 2010/01/31: TerraDaily: Cold snap to cost Germany billions: institute
• 2010/02/01: SwissInfo: Coldest January recorded for almost 25 years
  Switzerland, currently under a blanket of snow, has experienced its coldest January for almost a quarter of a century. The average temperature in this icy and snowy month was more than -1 degrees Celsius below the normal temperature.

Late coverage of Solomon et al.:

• 2010/02/04: GreenGrok: Water, Water Everywhere but a Little Less in the Stratosphere
• 2010/02/04: SolveClimate: Water Vapor Slowed Global Warming Over Past Decade -- Scientists Call Water Vapor a 'Global Warming Wild Card'
• 2010/02/01: SkeptiSci: The role of stratospheric water vapor in global warming

  The Arctic melt continues to garner a lot of attention:

• 2010/02/06: Reuters: Arctic climate changing faster than expected
  Climate change is transforming the Arctic environment faster than expected and accelerating the disappearance of sea ice, scientists said on Friday in giving their early findings from the biggest-ever study of Canada's changing north.
• 2010/02/06: TCoE: Arctic ice disappearing quicker
• 2010/02/05: TStar: Arctic ice melt affecting weather, wildlife, study finds
• 2010/02/06: DJournal: Professor [David Barber]: Arctic ice melt faster than thought
• 2010/02/06: GlobalTV: Arctic sea ice vanishing faster than 'our most pessimistic models': researcher [University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber]
• 2010/02/06: TMoS: Sort of Like the Titanic - Without the Ice
• 2010/02/05: TCoE: Doc alert: Arctic Treasure
• 2010/02/05: CanWest: Arctic melting to cost $2.4 trillion U.S. by 2050: Study
• 2010/02/05: CBC: Arctic warming will cost world billions: Pew study
• 2010/02/05: CBC: Arctic ice melting faster than feared: study
  The head of the largest climate change study ever undertaken in Canada says the Arctic sea ice is thinning faster than expected. "It's happening much faster than our most pessimistic projections," said University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber, the lead investigator of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead study. A flaw lead is the term for open water between pack ice and coastal ice. The study aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research ship Amundsen began in July 2007 and involved 370 scientists from around the world.
• 2010/02/04: Reuters: Scant Arctic ice could mean summer "double whammy"
  Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a "double whammy" of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday.
• 2010/02/04: TCoE: Arctic double whammy
• 2010/02/03: MongaBay: NASA: Arctic melt season lengthening
• 2010/02/03: TreeHugger: NASA Satellite Data Reveals Arctic Melting Season Now Nearly a Month Longer
• 2010/02/03: CCP: Arctic melt season growing longer by 6.4 days per decade, between 1979 and 2007
• 2010/02/01: CCP: V. W. Chu et al., J. Glaciol., 55 (2009), Sediment plume response to surface melting and supraglacial lake drainages on the Greenland ice sheet

  That Damoclean sword still hangs overhead:

• 2010/02/05: SciAm: Defusing the Methane Greenhouse Time Bomb
  Could methane-digesting bacteria and an Arctic cap of fresh water prevent a climate catastrophe?
• 2010/02/06: CCurrents: Defusing The Methane Greenhouse Time Bomb
• 2010/02/04: ERabett: Passing Gas ...atmospheric oxidation of methane...

  As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

• 2010/02/01: ChronicleHerald: Northern exposure -- Surveillance devices keep track of who's visiting Canadian Arctic
  A small team of scientists is returning to the icy shores of the Northwest Passage this summer to install experimental listening devices that could one day keep a 24-hour watch for anything travelling on, over or under waters Canada claims as its own.

The food crisis is ongoing:

• 2010/02/02: WFP: Number Of Hungry Quadruples in Southern Sudan Amidst Conflict and Drought
• 2010/02/02: FAO: Dire winter triggers livestock disaster in Mongolia -- 21,000 families at risk of food insecurity and poverty
• 2010/02/05: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: Zimbabwe: Nation Faces Maize Deficit Again, Despite Govt Claims
• 2010/02/01: USAToday: Study: 1 in 8 get help at food banks
  One in eight Americans -- 37 million -- received emergency food help last year, up 46% from 2005, the nation's largest hunger-relief group reports today. Children are hit particularly hard, according to the report by Feeding America, a network of 203 food banks nationwide. One in five children, 14 million, received food from soup kitchens, food pantries and other agencies, up from 9 million in 2005, the year of the group's last major survey.
• 2010/02/02: EarthTimes: Winter 'dzud' decimates Mongolia's livestock
• 2010/02/02: BBC: Big surge in south Sudan hunger
  The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN's World Food Programme says.
• 2010/02/01: PlanetArk: El Nino To Boost 2010 U.S. Crops: Report
• 2010/01/28: SeedDaily: Egypt's fertile Nile Delta falls prey to climate change
  The Nile Delta, Egypt's bread basket since antiquity, is being turned into a salty wasteland by rising seawaters, forcing some farmers off their lands and others to import sand in a desperate bid to turn back the tide.
• 2010/01/29: TerraDaily: Niger government says 2.7 million face hunger
• 2010/02/01: Eureka: 1 billion are hungry -- can we reduce hunger now and by 2050?

  The conflict between biofuel and food persists:

• 2010/02/04: TerraDaily: Waste Not Biofuels Cause One Billion People To Go Hungry

  So, are these land grabs Colonialism V2.0?

• 2010/01/25: ThisDay(Tz): Gulf firm seeks long-term lease on Tanzanian farmland
  A United Arab Emirates (UAE) company is seeking a 98-year lease on vast tracts of farmland in Tanzania to grow rice in order to secure food supplies for the Gulf countries. Pharos Miro Agriculture Fund, which was launched in November last year, plans to lay hands on 50,000 hectares of prime land in Tanzania this year. According to media reports from the Gulf, the private sector fund is to invest $350m in farmland across Africa and Europe. The company says it has attracted interest from Gulf sovereign wealth funds seeking to secure food supplies, an executive told Reuters last week.

And how are we going to feed 9 billion?

• 2010/02/05: ENN: How to Feed the Billions
• 2010/02/01: ABC(Au): Impact of ETS on food costs 'minimal'
  A new report has found failing to tackle climate change will have a greater impact on supermarket prices than an emissions trading scheme (ETS). The report from independent think-tank the Climate Institute found extreme weather events, caused by climate change, will lead to food price rises in the future.
• 2010/02/01: OilDrum: Agriculture: Wisdom of the Uncivilized Crowds

  Cyclone Oli stalked across the Central Pacific:

• 2010/02/05: EarthTimes: At least one dead as typhoon [Oli] strikes French Polynesia
• 2010/02/04: Eureka: Cyclone Oli reaches category 4 strength on its way to open waters
• 2010/02/03: Eureka: Now a hurricane, [Tropical cyclone] Oli passing Bora Bora
• 2010/02/04: BBC: Tahiti has been placed on red alert as Cyclone Oli threatens the French Polynesian group of islands
• 2010/02/02: Eureka: Tropical Storm Oli kicking up waves in south Pacific
• 2010/02/01: Eureka: Tropical Storm Oli forms in the southern Pacific

  While elsewhere in the hurricane wars:

• 2010/02/03: Eureka: NASA's Aqua Satellite sees Tropical Depression Fami fading fast
• 2010/02/02: ABC(Au): Olga to rain on drought-ravaged NSW
• 2010/02/01: TerraDaily: Report clears tunnel project of Taiwan typhoon [Morakot] deaths
• 2010/02/02: Eureka: NASA satellite sees Tropical Storm Fami form, fast and furious
• 2010/02/01: Eureka: Olga now raining on third of 5 Australia territories
  Australians in three of five territories have had enough of Tropical Cyclone Olga. After two landfalls, and three times a tropical storm, and traveling through Queensland and the Northern Territory, Olga's remnants are now raining on Australia's New South Wales Territory today, February 1.

As for GHGs:

• 2010/02/01: BBerg: Germany Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Fall 22%; Kyoto Target Achieved
• 2010/02/02: NewScientist: Water vapour worse climate change villain than thought
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: Top UN Climate Official [Janos Pasztor] Confirms Nations' Climate Pledges Won't Contain Global Temperature Rise
• 2010/02/01: STimes: UN says nations' greenhouse gas pledges too little
  The greenhouse gas goals announced by the nations responsible for most emissions are insufficient against the disastrous effects of climate change, a U.N. official [Janos Pasztor] said Monday.
• 2010/02/01: SciDaily: Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gas [HFC-23] Increase Despite Reduction Efforts

  As for the temperature record:

• 2010/02/06: Tamino: Gridiron Games
• 2010/02/04: Tamino: Skikda
• 2010/02/05: QuarkSoup: RSS: Warmest January Ever
• 2010/02/05: QuarkSoup: UAH Also: Warmest January Ever
• 2010/02/06: CCurrents: Tibet Temperature 'Highest Since Records Began'
• 2010/02/05: GL: Local is not Global
• 2010/02/05: MoD: Cool Mr Watts [Menne et al.]
• 2010/02/05: Guardian(UK): Tibet temperature 'highest since records began' say Chinese climatologists
• 2010/02/05: ClimateP: Hottest January in UAH satellite record -- Human-caused global warming easily overwhelms much-hyped "cold snap"
• 2010/02/05: ClimateShifts: Global-average lower tropospheric temperature anomaly +0.72 deg C for January 2010
• 2010/02/05: TreeHugger: Tibet Temps Highest Since Chinese Records Began
• 2010/02/05: Reuters: Tibet temperatures hit record high in 2009-paper
  Temperatures in Tibet rose last year to the highest level since records began for the remote Himalayan region, which scientists say is particularly vulnerable to global warming, state media reported on Friday. The average temperature in Tibet in 2009 was 5.9 degrees Celsius (42.6 degrees Fahrenheit), 1.5 degrees higher than "normal", the official China Daily newspaper reported, citing latest figures from the regional climate centre.
• 2010/02/04: DWWSJ: The weather question of the month- and the correct answer.
• 2010/02/04: BBC: Why was it cold in the UK, but not across the world?
  January was rather cold in the UK. But across the whole of the world, January was warmer than usual. Why?
• 2010/02/03: BBC: Scotland records coldest winter
  Scotland has suffered some of the coldest winter months in almost 100 years, the Met Office has confirmed.
• 2010/02/02: KSJT: Guardian: The hockey stick temperature plot's real history, proclaimed history, and its triumph today
• 2010/02/02: ClimateP: Groundhog Decade: We're stuck in a bad movie, where it's always the hottest decade on record
• 2010/02/02: ClimateShifts: Coral Sea experiences eighth warmest year on record in 2009

  Particulates are making their presence felt:

• 2010/02/03: LBNL: Black Carbon a Significant Factor in Melting of Himalayan Glaciers
• 2010/02/01: CSM: Airplane contrails and their effect on temperatures

  While in the paleoclimate:

• 2010/02/05: NewScientist: First breath: Earth's billion-year struggle for oxygen
• 2010/02/05: Eureka: Carbonate veins reveal chemistry of ancient seawater
• 2010/02/04: TerraDaily: Much Of The Early Methane Rise [5kya] Can Be Attributed To The Spreading Of Northern Peatlands
• 2010/02/04: SciDaily: Learning from Climate's Sedimental Journey [sic!]
  By analyzing sediments up to 4,000 years old, Susan Zimmerman is hoping to provide a tool to help predict future climate change.
• 2010/01/27: UBristol: Last Neanderthals died out 37,000 years ago
• 2010/02/01: NatureTGB: Sulphate the suspect in ancient ocean die-off [94mya]

  While on the ENSO front:

• 2010/02/04: NOAA:NCEP: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
  Synopsis: El Niño is expected to continue at least into the Northern Hemisphere spring 2010.
• 2010/02/03: Wunderground: El Niño weakens from strong to moderate

  Regarding the Milankovitch Cycles:

• 2010/02/05: PhysOrg: Understanding past and future climate
  The notion that scientists understand how changes in Earth's orbit affect climate well enough for estimating long-term natural climate trends that underlie any anthropogenic climate change is challenged by findings published this week. The new research was conducted by a team led by Professor Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.

Regarding Climate Sensitivity:

• 2010/02/06: RealClimate: Good news for the earth's climate system? [Frank et al.]
• 2010/02/03: BoingBoing: Scientists hash out the uncertainties of climate sensitivity

  And the Solar Cycle:

• 2010/02/01: GreenGrok: Solar Cycle 24: Ho Hum or Gee Whiz?

  Abrupt Climate Change put in an appearance:

• 2010/02/01: TerraDaily: Abrupt Climate Swings During Ice Age Revealed

  Meanwhile in near earth orbit:

• 2010/02/02: NewScientist: NASA satellite [OCO-2] could pave way for policing CO2 emissions
• 2010/02/02: BBC: Jason ocean mission secures funds
  Europe has committed to build the next Jason altimeter spacecraft to monitor the behaviour of the world's oceans. The decision should guarantee the continuation of a remarkable 18-year record of sea-surface shape until late in the decade. It is the Jason series that has traced the recent steady rise in global sea level by about 3mm per year. The data has become invaluable to oceanographers, weather forecasters and climatologists.
• 2010/02/01: ESA: Glacier-melting debate highlights importance of satellites

  The campaign to uncover DSCOVR [Deep Space Climate Observatory] lurches on:

• 1999/06/01: NYT: Politics Keeps a Satellite Earthbound
  As spacecraft go, it is small, inexpensive and normally would hardly stand out among the dozens of satellites and probes NASA is planning to send into space. But Triana, because of its unusual origin and mission, has attracted a lot of attention. And it is in trouble because of it. The goals of this simple satellite, designed to view the Earth from afar, have become complicated by the reality of Washington politics. The debate over whether the mission is a good idea or not is muddled by the awareness of whose idea it was in the first place.
• 2010/02/03: ScienceInsider: Obama Rescues Al Gore's Earth Satellite [DSCOVR] for Sun Duty ... and Maybe More

  More GW impacts are being seen:

• 2010/02/06: NewScientist: Surf's up as Pacific waves grow
• 2010/02/01: USGS: Disappearing Ducks? North America's Prairie Potholes Vulnerable to Warming Climates
• 2010/02/06: JFleck: The End of Joshua Trees?
• 2010/02/03: BBC: Climate change causes wolverine decline across Canada
  The wolverine, a predator renowned for its strength and tenacious character, may be slowly melting away along with the snowpack upon which it lives.
• 2010/02/05: NatureN: Is climate change hiding the decline of maple syrup? Human-related carbon emissions may skew isotope analysis for food-quality control
• 2010/02/03: TerraDaily: Global warming good for trees, bad for ducks: studies
• 2010/02/03: PhysOrg: Invasive plants are beneficiaries of climate change in Thoreau's woods
• 2010/02/02: S&R: Climate disruption will likely be worse due to insufficient soil nitrogen
• 2010/02/02: SciAm: The Bigger Kahuna: Are More Frequent and Higher Extreme Waves a By-Product of Global Warming?
  Increasing maximum wave heights off the Pacific Northwest coast may pose a greater threat than rising sea levels
• 2010/02/02: MongaBay: On World Wetland's Day bad news for America's iconic ducks
• 2010/02/01: PhysOrg: Disappearing ducks?
  The loss of wetlands in the prairie pothole region of central North America due to a warmer and drier climate will negatively affect millions of waterfowl that depend on the region for food, shelter and raising young, according to research published today in the journal BioScience.

And then there are the world's forests:

• 2010/02/01: FuturePundit: Global Warming Speeding Tree Growth?
• 2010/02/05: MongaBay: Forest conservation in U.S. climate policy: an interview with Jeff Horowitz
• 2010/02/04: EUO: Palm oil plantations are now 'forests,' says EU
  The European Commission and some EU member states hope to redefine palm oil plantations as "forests," according to a leaked document from the EU executive.
• 2010/02/01: Tierramerica: The Amazon Is Not Eternal
  The Amazonian apocalypse is just around the corner, according to scientists gathered at the conference launching the International Year of Biodiversity.
• 2010/02/03: SolveClimate: Studies Find Faster Tree Growth as Climate Changes, Potential to Drive Further Warming
• 2010/02/02: KSJT: Baltimore Sun, NYTimes: Chesapeake Trees + CO2 = Fatter, taller trees. News, indeed. Unanswered by reporters so far: so what?
• 2010/02/02: DM:80B: Massive Hydroelectric Dam in the Amazon Will Go Ahead
• 2010/02/02: TerraDaily: Conflict And Speculation In Tropical Forests Set To Grow
• 2010/02/02: BBC: Huge Brazil dam on the Xingu river moves step closer
  Brazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest. Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups.
• 2010/02/01: Eureka: Ecologists discover forests are growing faster -- Climate change appears to be driving accelerated growth

  Yes we have no wacky weather, except:

• 2010/02/06: CNN: 'Snowmageddon' slams mid-Atlantic; utilities race to restore power
  Maryland officials say 2,400 pieces of road-clearing equipment in use -- More than 200,000 still without power, though many customers reconnected -- 28.5 inches [70 cm.] reported at the Philadelphia airport by 4:45 p.m -- Flights canceled at Washington-Baltimore area airports, as well as Philadelphia's
• 2010/02/06: Wunderground: Snowmaggedon storm clobbers the Mid-Atlantic with 2 - 3 feet of snow
• 2010/02/07: BBC: Hundreds of thousands of people remain without power in Washington DC and nearby states after a blizzard blanketed the area with record snows
• 2010/02/07: DWWSJ: Some Context to The Historic East Coast Blizzard
• 2010/02/06: Guardian(UK): 'Snowmageddon' brings Washington to a standstill
• 2010/02/06: EarthTimes: Blizzard dumps heavy snow on US Mid-Atlantic
• 2010/02/05: BBC: Eastern US braced for heavy snow
• 2010/02/05: Wunderground: Powerful Nor'easter poised to pound Washington D.C. with 2 feet of snow

  As for heatwaves and wild fires:

• 2010/02/04: CanWest: Deal with urban wildfire risks now, forest watchdog warns
  Local governments need to impose stricter controls on new subdivisions where nearby forests pose a fire risk, says a report released Wednesday by the Forest Practices Board. The report, Managing Forest Fuels in the Wildland Urban Interface, says the task -- clearing the threat of forest fires in areas where there is human development -- is huge.

Corals are dying:

• 2010/02/01: ClimateShifts: Why the Great Barrier Reef isn't in "bloody brilliant shape" (Part 2)
• 2010/02/01: ClimateShifts: Why the Great Barrier Reef isn't in "bloody brilliant shape" (Part 1)

  Acidification is changing the oceans:

• 2010/02/03: UAB: Oceans Reveal Further Impacts of Climate Change, Says UAB Expert

  Glaciers are melting:

• 2010/02/05: SciDaily: Melt from Alaskan Glaciers Largely Overestimated in Previous Studies, Glaciologists Show
  Glaciologists at the Laboratory for Space Studies in Geophysics and Oceanography (LEGOS -- CNRS/CNES/IRD/Université Toulouse 3) and their US and Canadian colleagues (1) have shown that previous studies have largely overestimated mass loss from Alaskan glaciers over the past 40 years. Recent data from the SPOT 5 and ASTER satellites have enabled researchers to extensively map mass loss in these glaciers, which contributed 0.12 mm/year to sea-level rise between 1962 and 2006, rather than 0.17 mm/year as previously estimated.
• 2010/02/04: Guardian(UK): Understanding glacier changes
  Reports about the melting -- and advancing -- of Himalayan glaciers have sparked heated debate.
• 2010/02/01: SwissInfo: An ice highway draws tourists and scientists
  One of Switzerland's most impressive landmarks is not only a favourite tourist attraction but also a useful indicator of climate change. At some 23 kilometres in length, the Aletsch glacier is the largest in the Alps, and a major part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn Unesco World Heritage site.

Sea levels are rising:

• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): The Wollongong City Council has begun to scope out the impact of future sea level rises on the city by hiring a consultant to prepare a plan
• 2010/02/02: ABC(Au): Call for separate Torres sea level funding
  The Torres Strait Regional Authority has criticised the Queensland Government over its plan to protect the region from rising sea levels. The Member for Cook, Jason O'Brien, has suggested diverting funds from the Torres Strait's $56 million major infrastructure projects program to address flooding problems.

As for floods & droughts:

• 2010/02/06: EarthTimes: Death toll reaches 30 in central Mexico floods, mudslides
• 2010/02/06: CBC: Mudslides, floods hit Los Angeles area
• 2010/02/06: CBS: S. Calif. Storm Brings Mudslides, Flooding -- Dozens of Homes Damaged, More Than 500 Evacuated From L.A. Foothills After Downpour, With More Rain Expected
• 2010/02/06: EarthTimes: Death toll reaches 30 in central Mexico floods, mudslides
• 2010/02/05: JFleck: Powell Inflow Forecast Down
• 2010/02/04: JFleck: Measuring the Snow
• 2010/02/04: TerraDaily: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan at odds over mega-dam plan
• 2010/02/02: TerraDaily: Storms cause flooding in Spain's Canary Islands
• 2010/02/02: TerraDaily: Heavy rains bring Spanish wetlands back to life
• 2010/02/02: EarthTimes: One dead after storms hit Canary Islands
• 2010/02/02: EarthTimes: One dead after storms hit Canary Islands
• 2010/01/31: JFleck: Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Drying of the Southwest
• 2010/01/31: EnergyBulletin: To curb climate change, we need to protect water

  Elsewhere on the mitigation front:

• 2010/02/03: TCoE: Simple steps and dark hopes
• 2010/02/03: PhysOrg: Greenhouse surprise for red meat

  Consider transportation & GHG production:

• 2010/02/05: SciDaily: Engineers Aim to Make Air Travel Greener
  Carbon emissions from air travel could be reduced thanks to a new collaboration between engineers from the Universities of Bath and Bristol and the aerospace industry. The £1.4 million project will investigate new ways of using composite materials for wing panels in aircraft.
• 2010/02/05: BBC: British Airways has announced it made a pre-tax loss of £50m ($79m) in the three months to December 2009
• 2010/02/04: Grist: My whiz-bang light rail is your pain in the asphalt
• 2010/02/01: CSM: US high-speed rail to the rescue
• 2010/02/01: BBC: The quickest way to cut emissions from aircraft could be better flight management rather than new technology, an Oxford University study has found

  While in the endless quest for zero energy, sustainable buildings and practical codes:

• 2010/02/04: TreeHugger: Space-Age Tech Coming to a Building Near You: Aerogel as Insulation

  As for carbon sequestration:

• 2010/02/04: EnvFin: EU to fund carbon capture with 300m emissions allowances
• 2010/02/03: WhiteHouse: Presidential Memorandum -- A Comprehensive Federal Strategy on Carbon Capture and Storage
• 2010/02/04: EUO: EU surmounts carbon capture impasse
  European Union member states have come to agreement on the division of spoils in the bloc's plan to launch a controversial technology to bury carbon underground or under the sea bed. In 2008, EU countries backed a proposal from the European Parliament on how to support the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) that would see the sale of 300 million carbon permits through the emissions trading scheme funding a dozen pilot projects around the union.
• 2010/02/01: Grist: Pulling carbon out of the air (and out of coal smokestacks) just might be possible

  Large scale geo-engineering keeps popping up:

• 2010/02/07: NewScientist: Beware of geoengineering using volcanoes' tricks
• 2010/02/02: FuturePundit: White Roofs For Cooler Cities In Summer
• 2010/02/05: NewScientist: White roofs can cool cities
• 2010/02/04: US House: Subcommittee Examines Geoengineering Strategies and Hazards
• 2010/02/05: TEC: Doc alert: Geoengineering hearings [by US House Committee on Science and Technology's Energy and Environment Subcommittee]

  Meanwhile in the journals:

• 2010/02/05: AGWObserver: Papers on black carbon
• 2010/02/03: NERC:NORA: Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide by Corinne Le Quere et al.
• 2010/02/05: NERC:NORA: Global warming and eutrophication: effects on water chemistry and autotrophic communities in experimental hypertrophic shallow lake mesocosms by Heidrun Feuchtmayr et al.
• 2010/02/05: NERC:NORA: Influence of simulated climate change and eutrophication on three-spined stickleback populations: a large scale mesocosm experiment by Rebecca Moran et al.
• 2010/02/05: NERC:NORA: Streamwater phosphorus and nitrogen across a gradient in rural-agricultural land use intensity by H.P. Jarvie et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACP: Variability of springtime transpacific pollution transport during 2000-2006: the INTEX-B mission in the context of previous years by G. G. Pfister et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACP: Inverse modeling of European CH4 emissions: sensitivity to the observational network by M. G. Villani et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACPD: The impact of the 1783-1784 AD Laki eruption on global aerosol formation processes and cloud condensation nuclei by A. Schmidt et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACPD: Co-located column and in situ measurements of CO2 in the tropics compared with model simulations by T. Warneke et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACPD: Impacts of dust on West African climate during 2005 and 2006 by M. Camara et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACPD: Climate impact on airborne particulate matter concentrations in California using seven year analysis periods by A. Mahmud et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACPD: Analysis of emission data from global commercial aviation: 2004 and 2006 by J. T. Wilkerson et al.
• 2010/02/05: ACPD: A case study of dust aerosol radiative properties over Lanzhou, China by L. Zhang et al.
• 2010/02/05: TC: High resolution modelling of snow transport in complex terrain using downscaled MM5 wind fields by M. Bernhardt et al.
• 2010/01/22: AmJBot: (ab$) Desert wildfire and severe drought diminish survivorship of the long-lived Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia; Agavaceae) by Lesley A. DeFalco et al.
• 2010/02/05: CPD: Coral Cd/Ca and Mn/Ca records of El Niño variability in the Gulf of California by J. D. Carriquiry & J. A. Villaescusa
• 2010/02/02: CPD: Arctic marine climate of the early nineteenth century by P. Brohan et al.
• 2010/01/25: EPSL via doi: (ab$) Comparison between Holocene and Marine Isotope Stage-11 sea-level histories by E.J. Rohling et al.
• 2010/02/02: ACP: Changes in the production rate of secondary aerosol particles in Central Europe in view of decreasing SO2 emissions between 1996 and 2006 by A. Hamed et al.
• 2010/02/01: ACP: Cloud processing of mineral dust: direct comparison of cloud residual and clear sky particles during AMMA aircraft campaign in summer 2006 by A. Matsuki et al.
• 2010/02/01: ACP: What caused extreme ozone concentrations over Cotonou in December 2005? by A. Minga et al.
• 2010/02/04: ACPD: A new ENSO index derived from satellite measurements of column ozone by J. R. Ziemke et al.
• 2010/02/04: ACPD: Quantifying the clear-sky temperature inversion frequency and strength over the Arctic Ocean during summer and winter seasons from AIRS profiles by A. Devasthale et al.
• 2010/02/04: ACPD: A climatological perspective of deep convection penetrating the TTL during the Indian summer monsoon from the AVHRR and MODIS instruments by A. Devasthale & S. Fueglistaler
• 2010/02/03: ACPD: Assessment of parameterizations of heterogeneous ice nucleation in cloud and climate models by J. A. Curry & V. I. Khvorostyanov
• 2010/02/03: ACPD: Long-term trends in the middle atmosphere dynamics at northern middle latitudes -- one regime or two different regimes? by J. Lastovicka et al.
• 2010/02/01: ACPD: First ground-based FTIR-observations of methane in the tropics by A. K. Petersen et al.
• 2010/02/01: ACPD: A trajectory analysis of atmospheric transport of black carbon aerosols to Canadian High Arctic in winter and spring (1990-2005) by L. Huang et al.
• 2010/02/01: ACPD: Cloud albedo increase from carbonaceous aerosol by W. R. Leaitch et al.
• 2010/02/02: AGWObserver: Papers on CO2 records from ice cores
• 2010/02/01: AGWObserver: Papers on Amazon and global warming
• 2010/02/02: TC: Overview of areal changes of the ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 50 years by A. J. Cook & D. G. Vaughan
• 2010/02/02: PNAS: Compounded effects of climate change and habitat alteration shift patterns of butterfly diversity by Matthew L. Forister et al.
• 2010/02/02: PNAS: Solar-powered drip irrigation enhances food security in the Sudano-Sahel by Jennifer Burney et al.
• 2010/02/02: PNAS: Pacific decadal oscillation hindcasts relevant to near-term climate prediction by Takashi Mochizuki et al.
• 2009/12/22: GRL: (ab$) Nitrogen constraints on terrestrial carbon uptake: Implications for the global carbon-climate feedback by Ying-Ping Wang & Benjamin Z. Houlton

  And other significant documents:

• 2010/02/05: OceansNorth: [links to pdfs] _Arctic Treasure: Global Assets Melting Away_
• 2010/02/02: UNEO:SEFI: [link to pdf] Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009 Report

  Before we get into politics, there was some science done:

• 2010/02/07: SkeptiSci: Could climate shifts be causing global warming?
• 2010/02/04: SciDaily: Quantum Mechanics at Work in Photosynthesis: Algae Familiar With These Processes for Nearly Two Billion Years
• 2010/02/04: DeSmogBlog: Douglass and Christy: Bad science; disingenuous commentary
• 2010/02/03: PhysOrg: Scientists find quantum mechanics at work in photosynthesis
• 2010/02/03: SciDaily: Measuring Rainfall With Mobile Phone Antennas
  As rain interferes with radio signals, researchers have been able to measure rainfall using data supplied by the mobile telecommunications company Orange. The new method offers greater spatial resolution than traditional point measurements provided by rain gauges.

More DIY science:

• 2010/02/05: CC&G: RCimate Script: RSS Global Temperature Anomaly Trends
• 2010/02/01: CC&G: RClimate Script: Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Anomaly Trends

  Hansen redux:

• 2010/02/02: CCP: James Hansen, international climate scientist visits University of North Carolina

  Pachauri Profile:

• 2010/02/05: BBC: Profile: Climate chief Rajendra Pachauri
• 2010/02/02: AFTIC: Head of IPCC writes trashy novel, global warming halts!

  Richard Alley lecture:

• 2010/02/01: EnergyBulletin: Climate Science: Shooting the Messenger

  Meanwhile on the Kyoto front:

• 2010/02/01: BBerg: Germany Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Fall 22%; Kyoto Target Achieved
• 2010/02/04: PlanetArk: Spain Sees Emissions To 2012 Breaching Kyoto Limit

  And on the carbon trading front:

• 2010/02/04: Economist: Carbon markets after Copenhagen -- Don't hold your breath -- Why hasn't the carbon price fallen further?
• 2010/02/03: JakartaGlobe: Why Can't Indonesia Unravel Red Tape And Break Into Carbon Credit Trading?
• 2010/02/02: CanWest: All smoke and no fire in Montreal carbon market
  Four years ago, when he helped create the Montreal Climate Exchange, Léon Bitton thought it would be only a short time before the federal government introduced binding cap-and-trade legislation, allowing Montreal to become the centre of environmental finance and emissions trading in Canada. Today, Mr. Bitton, vice-president of research and development for the Montreal Exchange, and Ann McCarthy, vice-president of business development of the Montreal Climate Exchange - and its sole employee - are still waiting.

A major phishing attack on the EU-ETS occured this week:

• 2010/02/05: PlanetArk: Internet Attacks Breach EU Carbon Trading System
• 2010/02/04: Guardian(UK): Carbon trading fraudsters steal permits worth £2.7m in 'phishing' scam
• 2010/02/04: PlanetArk: Online Fraudsters Steal Carbon Permits: Registry
• 2010/02/03: DeSmogBlog: Cyber-Thieves Madoff With Millions in Carbon Credits
• 2010/02/03: BBC: Phishing scam hits carbon permits
  The international carbon market has been hit by a phishing attack which saw an estimated 250,000 permits worth over 3 million euros stolen this week. The scam involves six German companies and meant emissions trading registries in a number of EU countries shut down temporarily on 2 February.
• 2010/02/03: EUO: Cyber-scam artists disrupt emissions trading across EU
  Emissions trading registries in a number of EU countries were shut down on Tuesday (2 February) as a result of a phishing scam tricking traders into giving away their emissions allowances. Although emissions trading was still able to continue via the European Emissions Exchange, registries in nine member states - Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria Germany - closed to prevent any further losses, according to reports in the German press. Other national registries, notably those in Austria, the Netherlands and Norway, were quicker to react and while registration was suspended in these countries as well, they reopened on Tuesday.
• 2010/02/03: DerSpiegel: Climate Crime -- Phishing Scam Cripples European Emissions Trading
  Sneaky cyber-thieves have made millions by fraudulently obtaining European greenhouse gas emissions allowances and reselling them. The scam has hampered trading of the credits, which are seen as an important tool in curbing climate change, in several European countries.

The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

• 2010/02/01: SolveClimate: Eco2 Tree-Planting Scheme Highlights Fears About Forestry Offsets -- Investigation Finds 'Carbon Cowboys' from California to the South Pacific
• 2010/01/31: Stoat: Hurrah: Copenhagen dampens banks' green commitment

  As for GW & security:

• 2010/02/04: REA: Energy Diversification: A National Security Imperative
• 2010/02/05: EarthTimes: Climate, energy take centre-stage at [Munich] Security Conference
• 2010/02/03: Grist: Rescuing failing states
  One of the leading challenges facing the international community is how to rescue failing states, those countries most at risk of collapse due to a combination of weak governance, internal violence, and social upheaval. Continuing with business as usual in international assistance programs is not working, as evidenced by the continuing deterioration of places like Haiti, Somalia, and Yemen. The stakes could not be higher. (See earlier discussion of failing states.) If the number of failing states continues to increase, at some point this trend will translate into a failing global civilization. Somehow we must turn the tide of state decline.
• 2010/02/03: Reuters: Bangladesh risks becoming failed state, retired general says
  Bangladesh faces such "total destabilisation" from climate change by 2050 that it risks becoming a failed state, a retired Bangladeshi general has warned. The low-lying river delta nation of 156 million is expected to lose up to 17 percent of its land area to rising seas by 2050, displacing at least 15 million people, according to a U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. But it is Bangladesh's other risk factors - the lack of a social safety net, a weak government with a history of corruption, a fast-growing population and neighbours hostile to the idea of accepting refugees - that threaten to turn an international environmental crisis into an international humanitarian and security disaster, said retired Maj. Gen. Muniruzzaman, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies.
• 2010/02/02: SolveClimate: U.S. Defense Review Boosts Case for National Climate Action
• 2010/02/01: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Pentagon Highlights Climate Risks
• 2010/02/01: TreeHugger: Pentagon Calls Climate Change a Destabilizing Geopolitical Force
• 2010/01/31: Guardian(UK): Pentagon to rank global warming as destabilising force -- US defence review says military planners should factor climate change into long-term strategy
• 2010/02/01: TP:WR: Pentagon: 'Climate Change, Energy Security, And Economic Stability Are Inextricably Linked'

  The issue of the law and activism is playing out around the world as nations scramble to deal with climate change:

• 2010/02/05: ABC(Au): Climate activists fined for Opera House climb
  Four of the five Greenpeace activists who climbed the Sydney Opera House in a protest about climate change have been fined $750. [the other was sentenced to a 12 month good behaviour bond]

Polls! We have polls!

• 2010/02/01: C411: The Frank Luntz Poll About Global Warming: Still Hot News
• 2010/02/05: DeSmogBlog: Did Those Winter Storms Snow the Whole Population of Britain?
• 2010/02/05: BBC: Climate scepticism 'on the rise'
  There has been an increase in the number of British people who are sceptical about climate change, a poll commissioned by BBC News has suggested. It showed that 25% of those questioned did not think global warming was happening, an increase of 10% since a similar poll was conducted in November. The percentage of respondents who said climate change was a reality had fallen from 83% in November to 75%. The poll, based on a sample group of 1,001 adults, was conducted by Populus.
• 2010/02/04: PhysOrg: According to new survey, Americans support strong climate, energy policies
• 2010/02/04: TreeHugger: Americans Support Strong Climate & Energy Policy: Yale Poll
• 2010/02/04: TEC: American Voters Prefer Carbon Tax over Cap-and-Trade, 2 to 1

  And on the American political front:

• 2010/02/06: ClimateP: Why are anti-science conservatives so damn condescending? The center-right Washington Post publishes another inane attack on liberals
• 2010/02/05: WorldChanging: Where Did We Go Wrong on "Green Jobs"?
• 2010/02/06: TP: Utah state representative claims climate change is a 'conspiracy' aimed at population control
• 2010/02/04: EnvFin: Hopes build for US Green Bank
• 2010/02/05: TreeHugger: Higher National Renewable Energy Standard Means Hundreds of Thousands More Jobs by 2025
• 2010/02/05: SolveClimate: Study: National Renewables Mandate Could Help Make U.S. Competitive with China -- 25% Federal RES by 2025 Could Generate 274,000 Domestic Jobs
• 2010/02/05: TPMDC: Virginia GOP: Tell Cap-And-Trade Dems How Much 'Global Warming' You Get This Weekend! (VIDEO)
  The Virginia Republican Party is out with a whopper Web video today mocking the incoming massive snowstorm as "global warming."
• 2010/02/05: SLTrib: [Utah] Lawmaker: Climate change just ruse to control population -- Panel votes 10-1 for resolution denouncing the science and proposed bill.
  Rep. Mike Noel, the Legislature's chief climate-change skeptic, declared Thursday that global warming is a conspiracy to control world population. The House Natural Resources Committee then approved a resolution that expresses the Utah Legislature's belief that "climate alarmists' carbon dioxide-related global warming hypothesis is unable to account for the current downturn in global temperatures." The resolution, sent to the House on a 10-1 vote, would urge the Environmental Protection Agency to drop plans to regulate the pollution blamed for climate change "until a full and independent investigation of the climate data conspiracy and global warming science can be substantiated."
• 2010/02/05: SF Gate: Calpine gets OK for Hayward plant with CO2 cap
  The Bay Area will soon contain the nation's first power plant to have its greenhouse gas emissions capped by a federal government permit. Calpine Corp. won regulatory approval on Wednesday to build in Hayward its long-delayed Russell City Energy Center, which will burn natural gas and generate enough electricity to power 450,000 typical homes. The project's final permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the plant can produce - a first. Calpine volunteered for the cap.
• 2010/02/01: PortlandBizJournal: Study: Create incentives for electric cars
  A group studying ways for Oregon to spur widespread adoption of alternative-fuel vehicles has recommended the state enact a series of new tax credits to promote electric vehicles and create a new center of excellence to study electric vehicle technology.
• 2010/02/04: Grist: Feed-in tariffs legal in U.S. when certain conditions met
• 2010/02/03: Reuters: IEA says U.S. must adopt carbon pricing system
  The United States must adopt a carbon pricing system, like the one President Barack Obama has submitted to Congress, if it hopes to meet its U.N. commitments on greenhouse gas emissions, the International Energy Agency's head said on Wednesday. Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the Paris-based IEA which advises 28 industrialised nations on their energy policy, said Washington's 2020 target of cutting carbon emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels meant it would have to adopt new legislation imposing a cost on carbon waste. Tanaka said the U.S. Senate needed to pass an energy bill, already given initial approval by the House of Representatives, which would allow a cap-and-trade system to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions and allow companies to trade permits.
• 2010/02/03: Oregonian: Kulongoski, Oregon lawmakers seek to scale back energy tax credits
  Big wind energy projects no longer need state incentives, Gov. Ted Kulongoski said today, as lawmakers explored a plan to rein in the soaring costs of Oregon's tax breaks for green energy.
• 2010/02/03: STimes: Wash. gov says nuclear energy must be considered
  Gov. Chris Gregoire is applauding President Barack Obama's recent push for nuclear power - a stance that could cause political headaches in her state.
• 2010/02/04: PortlandTrib: Millions flowing to Cash for Caulkers -- Local residents line up for jobs, but some question the costs
• 2010/02/04: USAToday: Renewable energy commitment could double jobs
• 2010/01/27: MillerMcCune: Clunkernomics: It's Not So Simple
  Rebates for energy-efficient appliances don't stand up to the economic analysis that, until now, no one bothered to do.
• 2010/02/02: NYT:CW: Feinstein, States Support Funding Boosts for EPA's Greenhouse Gas Regs
  Battle lines were drawn yesterday as the chief Senate architect of the U.S. EPA spending bill and state regulators backed a White House proposal to ramp up funding for programs to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and congressional opponents vowed to fight the agency's efforts. "I would support it," Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said yesterday of President Obama's suggested $43 million boost for EPA programs to limit greenhouse gases in fiscal 2011. "There's no question about greenhouse gas in my mind." The White House yesterday requested $56 million -- including $43 million in new funding -- for EPA and states to curb greenhouse gas emissions through regulatory program.
• 2010/02/03: TreeHugger: California's Tough Electronics Energy Regulations Spreading to Other States
• 2010/02/02: Kentucky: Ky. legislators criticize plan to cut coal subsidies
• 2010/02/02: NYT: California Sets Up Statewide Network to Monitor Global-Warming Gases
• 2010/02/02: CSM: Hawaii on track to meet renewable energy goals
  Two years into Hawaii's ambitious project of vastly increasing the amount of power it gets from renewable sources, state leaders say the islands are on track. The goal is for Hawaii, the nation's most dependent state on foreign oil, to get 40 percent of its electric power from renewables by 2030. The state so far only gets about 9 percent of its power from such sources. A state law passed last year calls for at least 10 percent of electricity sales to come from renewables by the end of this year, and 15 percent by 2015. Although new wind and solar projects haven't yet made a dent in Hawaii's use of fossil fuels, the state has laid the groundwork for additional renewable power to come online, according to public utility companies, environmentalists, and state officials.
• 2010/02/01: Grist: The Nation's idea for a Clean Power Agency
• 2010/02/01: Grist: Why senators don't see the clean energy boom
  You might not have heard, because almost nobody reported it, but new clean-energy projects attracted more global funding in 2008 than fossil-fuel projects did. For the first time ever, investors put more money in solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower than in fuels that must be burned, according to a U.N. report. And when venture-capital funding tanked in 2009 because of the recession, cleantech weathered the downturn better than any other sector. People with money to invest are choosing clean energy over dirty. But lawmakers who shape energy legislation are not, quite possibly because they don't don't have a good understanding of the energy landscape. Because they spend their weekends with oil lobbyists.
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: How Do US Net Emission Reductions Proposals Compare To What's Needed? Not Well.
• 2010/02/01: KSJT: Boston Globe, NYTimes, etc: Massachusetts aims to move past Calif in green & efficient electricity use
• 2010/02/01: Yale360: It's Green Against Green In Mojave Desert Solar Battle

  The Republicans are trying to kill California's climate change and energy laws:

• 2010/02/05: LA Times:GS: Jerry Brown's global warming revenge?
  Backers of a proposed ballot initiative to suspend California's landmark global warming initiative are threatening to sue Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown over the cumbersome title and summary his office attached to their "California Jobs Initiative," reports our sister blog, PolitiCal. Rather than adopt the sponsor's catchy title, Brown has dubbed it: "Suspends air pollution control laws requiring major polluters to report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming."
• 2010/02/04: Grist: Anti-jobs 'California Jobs Initiative' crew threatens suit over name change
• 2010/02/05: KC: Movement to suspend California's global-warming law gathers steam
  Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations. Supporters say they have "solid commitments" of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state's unemployment rate drops.
• 2010/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Industry Tries to Derail Progress in California, Again
• 2010/02/05: Yahoo:AP: GOP lawmakers seek to suspend Calif. climate law

  Regarding Bush's midnight regulation changes:

• 2010/02/04: Grist: Midnight regulations
  In the months leading up to President Obama's inauguration, the Bush administration rushed through [over 150] a raft of controversial regulations.
  [...]
  Despite attempts by the current administration, almost all of these remain in effect.

The Obama chatter is nonstop:

• 2010/02/05: 1Sky:SkyWriter: My chat with President Obama: Don't be stubborn about it -- or we will be!
• 2010/02/04: Time: A New Clean Economy -- With Old Sources of Energy
  Since his election, President Barack Obama has emphasized the importance of developing new sources of energy and cultivating the jobs that will come with them. "I am convinced that whoever builds a clean energy economy, whoever is at the forefront of that, is going to own the 21st-century global economy," Obama told a bipartisan meeting of governors at the White House on Wednesday. But, increasingly, the President's new clean economy seems to rely on old sources of energy.
• 2010/02/06: SolveClimate: Where Is Nuclear Power Really Heading? A Look at Obama's Call for New Nuclear and the Reactors that Might Be Built
• 2010/02/03: ScienceInsider: Obama Rescues Al Gore's Earth Satellite [DSCOVR] for Sun Duty ... and Maybe More
• 2010/02/03: HuffPo: Obama Pushing Clean Coal, Green Jobs
• 2010/02/03: ScienceInsider: Is Obama Scaling Back Cap-and-Trade Goals?
• 2010/02/02: TPM: Obama Acknowledges Senate Unlikely To Adopt Pollution Limits
• 2010/02/02: PlanetArk: Obama: Cap-And-trade May Be Separate In Senate Bill

  The actions of the Obama administration are being watched closely:

• 2010/02/04: FuturePundit: Loan Guarantees For 7 More Nuclear Reactors
• 2010/02/04: ScienceInsider: Chu Places His Energy Bet on ARPA-E
• 2010/02/04: NYT:GW: Hot Springs Community Clashes With Hot Energy Source in Colo.
  The Bureau of Land Management last week withdrew for the third time what could have become Colorado's first geothermal lease after receiving a slew of questions and complaints from landowners concerned about the impacts potential geothermal developments would have on property values. The planned Feb. 11 lease of the 800-acre site in Chaffee County, about 60 miles southwest of Denver, had generated fears among some residents and business owners that tapping the region's abundant geothermal heat could spoil picturesque landscapes and harm naturally occurring hot springs that draw tourists to the Chalk Creek Valley, a resort area at the foot of Mount Princeton.
• 2010/02/04: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama Administration establishes Carbon Capture & Storage Task Force
• 2010/02/03: WhiteHouse: Presidential Memorandum -- A Comprehensive Federal Strategy on Carbon Capture and Storage
• 2010/02/04: CSM: Obama's nuclear power policy: a study in contradictions?
  Obama wants to triple public financing for new nuclear power plants, even as he nixes funds for storing commercial radioactive waste. The policy may be calculated to win votes for climate change legislation, but critics say it's not 'coherent' and carries new security risks.
• 2010/02/04: NYT:CW: Administration Presses On for a 'Cap' on Carbon Emissions
  The Obama administration's top climate adviser strongly defended a cap on emissions a day after the president suggested Congress might move an energy bill without such a cap in place. White House climate and energy adviser Carol Browner used the words "cap" and "price signal" several times yesterday in describing what the administration would be pushing for in the days ahead to spur new jobs and curb the "dangerous pollutants that contribute to global warming."
• 2010/02/05: TP:WR: Ken Salazar, The 'New Sheriff' At Interior: Oil And Gas Interests 'Do Not Own The Nation's Public Lands'
• 2010/02/04: WaPo: EPA biofuels guidelines could spur production of ethanol from corn
• 2010/02/04: TEC: Breaking Down the Obama Biofuel Plan
• 2010/02/04: TEC: EPA's New Biofuel Rules
• 2010/02/04: Grist: Echoes of Bush -- EPA capitulates on ethanol, hearts clean coal
• 2010/02/03: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA publishes final RFSII rule: a tool to move biofuels forward
• 2010/02/03: TEC: Department of Energy seeks nominations for IPCC [WG3] authors and reviewers
• 2010/02/03: AutoBG: GSA approves Smith Electric Vehicles for U.S. government agency purchases
• 2010/02/02: NYT:GW: White House Clears Rules on Indirect GHG Emissions From Biofuels The White House has completed its review of controversial U.S. EPA regulations aimed at curbing renewable fuels' greenhouse gas emissions.
  The Office of Management and Budget signed off on the rule yesterday, OMB records show, clearing EPA to finalize the long-delayed implementation of the renewable fuels standard that Congress included in the 2007 energy bill. The bill expanded the renewable fuels standard (RFS) and set escalating goals for the use of ethanol and other biofuels in U.S. transportation fuels, reaching 36 billion gallons a year in 2022.
• 2010/02/01: NRDC:SwitchBoard: EPA establishes oil and gas drilling tip line

  The 2011 budget came down this week:

• 2010/02/04: EnvFin: Obama ups renewables funding, cuts fossil subsidies
• 2010/02/05: ClimateP: The loan arranger: Obama triples budget for nuke loan guarantee program... but hasn't seen a single promising application in two years -- Nuclear remains slow, risky, and expensive
• 2010/02/03: NatureTGB: Obama pushes forward on biofuels, coal
• 2010/02/04: Grist: How much will nuclear cost U.S. citizens?
• 2010/02/03: ClimateP: Yes, Obama is still pursuing clean air, clean energy jobs bill that puts a price on carbon pollution
• 2010/02/01: SolveClimate: Obama Budget Erases Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Ramps Up Nuclear Spending
• 2010/02/02: SciNow: The 2011 Science Budget Roundup
• 2010/02/01: Grist: Digging into Obama's 2011 budget on energy and the environment
• 2010/02/02: NRDC:SwitchBoard: President Obama's budget contributes to fast-start international climate finance
• 2010/02/02: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Obama's 2011 Budget Calls for Clean Energy and Climate Legislation, Cuts in Fossil Fuel Subsidies
• 2010/02/02: CSW: President Obama's FY2011 Budget has 21% funding increase for USGCRP climate science research
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: Obama Seeks to Cut $38 Billion Coal & Oil Subsidies Out of Budget
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: Why There's $54.5 Billion for Nuclear Power in Obama's Budget
• 2010/02/01: EarthTimes: Clean energy, nuclear power get money in Obama's 2011 budget
• 2010/02/01: ScienceInsider: Budget Day Surprise #1: $300 Million for ARPA-E
• 2010/02/01: ScienceInsider: Energy Science Gets a Boost, But No Joy for ITER
• 2010/02/01: Grist: talkin' 'bout what generation? Obama's nuclear generation gap
• 2010/02/01: Grist: Obama's nuclear error
• 2010/02/01: TreeHugger: Obama's Budget Includes Outline for Carbon Market
• 2010/02/01: EarthTimes: Clean energy, nuclear power get money in Obama's 2011 budget

  As for what is going on in Congress:

• 2010/02/05: TreeHugger: New Bill Would Create 10 Million Solar Roofs Across US
• 2010/02/06: PeakEnergy: Cantwell's Cap and Dividend Gambit
• 2010/02/06: TP:WR: At Behest Of King Coal And Big Ag, Ike Skelton And Collin Peterson Try To Outlaw Global Warming
• 2010/02/05: Grist: A chat with Sen. Bernie Sanders on his new 10 million solar roofs bill
• 2010/02/04: US House: Subcommittee Examines Geoengineering Strategies and Hazards
• 2010/02/04: NYT:GW: Sen. Rockefeller Criticizes Obama Over Coal Policy
  West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D) lashed out at President Obama today for sending inconsistent messages about the future of coal. Speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Obama's fiscal 2011 budget request, Rockefeller took umbrage first with the administration's decision to eliminate four tax breaks for the industry.
• 2010/02/02: HillHeat: Senate Watch, 2011 Budget: Bennett, Feinstein, Graham, Inhofe, Kerry, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Lugar, Sanders, Voinovich
• 2010/02/03: HillHeat: Senate Watch, 2011 Budget: Bennett, Feinstein, Graham, Inhofe, Kerry, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Lugar, Sanders, Voinovich
• 2010/02/01: HillHeat: Senate Watch: Alexander, Barrasso, Bingaman, Carper, Kerry, Murkowski
• 2010/02/02: MoJo: Negative Energy -- A key bloc of Democrats has a climate Plan B: Ditch cap and trade for an energy bill filled with industry giveaways
• 2010/02/02: TP:WR: Earl Pomeroy, D-Global Warming Denial
  In a bald attempt to defend coal industry profits, Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) has joined a predominantly Republican push to overrule the Environmental Protection Agency's scientific finding that greenhouse gases are dangerous pollutants.

Kerry-Boxer, Waxman-Markey or whatever -- the future climate bill -- defines a battleline:

• 2010/02/04: Reuters: Ideas for a compromise U.S. climate bill
• 2010/02/04: ClimateP: Utilities diss utility-only cap
• 2010/02/03: ClimateP: Stick a fork in the energy-only bill: Lindsey Graham (R-SC) slams push for a "half-assed energy bill"
• 2010/02/03: NYT:GW: Sen. Graham Slams Push for a 'Half-Assed Energy Bill'
  A key Senate Republican came out swinging today against the idea of passing just an energy bill and ignoring President Obama's call to also cap greenhouse gas emissions. "It's the 'kick the can down the road' approach," said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. "It's putting off to another Congress what really needs to be done comprehensively. I don't think you'll ever have energy independence the way I want until you start dealing with carbon pollution and pricing carbon. The two are interconnected." Senate moderates from both parties -- including Agriculture Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), and Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) -- are pushing Obama to accept an energy-only approach without putting a price on carbon emissions the way the House-passed bill (H.R. 2454) does.
• 2010/02/03: TP:WR: [Senator Lindsey] Graham (R-SC): ConservaDems' Dirty Energy Bill Is 'Half-Assed'
• 2010/02/03: CIP: RIP: C&T

  Conservative & corporate forces in Congress as trying to prevent EPA regulations arising from CO2 endangerment:

• 2010/02/04: PlanetArk: House Bill Would Prevent EPA Regulating Carbon [Skelton-Peterson-Emerson]
• 2010/02/04: TreeHugger: House of Representatives Faces Its Own 'Dirty Air' Act [Skelton-Peterson]
• 2010/02/03: Reuters: House bill would prevent EPA regulating carbon
  With congressional action on climate legislation in doubt, two House committee chairmen have filed a bill to block the government from regulating greenhouse gases under its own power. The lawmakers say Congress, not "unelected bureaucrats," should set environmental policy. Congress has squabbled for months over a comprehensive climate change bill. Some members say the best bet is to encourage renewable energy production. The Environmental Protection Agency cleared the way for regulation under air pollution laws a month ago, when it ruled that greenhouse gases endanger human health. EPA could act as early as March to offer regulations. Efforts were being made in both chambers of Congress to derail EPA regulation. It normally takes months for Congress to agree on legislation.
• 2010/02/03: Grist: The corn jihadi -- With climate legislation flat on its back, Collin Peterson goes in for the kill
• 2010/02/02: StarTrib: [Rep. Ike] Skelton (D-Mo.) and [Rep. Jo Ann] Emerson (R-Mo.) to propose barring EPA from developing own greenhouse gas emissions rules
• 2010/02/02: CNN: Obama's climate change police

  What about the lobbyists?

• 2010/02/03: NYT:CW: 'All Kinds of Yelling' Expected From Obama's Lobbyist Crackdown
  The Obama administration's call for a lobbying crackdown created confusion on K Street yesterday even as it spawned cheers among environmental and watchdog groups. The issue came to the forefront this week after Norm Eisen, White House special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, blogged about how the administration plans to revolutionize how lobbyists disclose their activities and contribute money to candidates for federal office. Both proposals appeared briefly in President Obama's State of the Union address on Jan. 27, but Eisen referred to a fact sheet (pdf) with far greater detail about how the president intends to shake up K Street. Considering that climate change is an issue producing lobbyists from almost every industry in the United States, the plans, if enacted, could generate a flood of data about the discussions and attendees at pivotal meetings during the drafting of global warming legislation.

While in the UK:

• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): Climate scepticism grows among Tories -- Green policies have potential to be as divisive as Europe, leadership warned
• 2010/02/04: EnvFin: UK introduces feed-in tariff for small-scale renewables
• 2010/02/05: Guardian(UK): [UKIP MEP] Godfrey Bloom 'forgot' Rainbow Warrior death during Copenhagen rant
• 2010/02/04: Telegraph(UK): Government misses climate change target -- Labour cut CO2 emissions by 10% from 1990 levels by 2010, not the promised 20%
• 2010/02/03: SolveClimate: Britain Launches Comprehensive System of Feed-in Rates
• 2010/02/03: BBC: Fears over future power shortages
  Mainland Britain could face power shortages in the years ahead, according to the energy regulator, Ofgem. The regulator also warned that a significant number of consumers may not be able to afford the higher energy prices they would have to face. Ofgem said there was "reasonable doubt" about whether the energy market would be able to deliver sustainable supplies in the coming decade. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband expressed confidence in supply needs being met.
• 2010/02/02: Guardian(UK): Stern denies he's a Tory adviser as Labour scents Osborne gaffe
• 2010/02/01: TreeHugger: Breaking News: UK Solar Now Affordable? Feed-In Tariffs [36.5p per kWh] Announced
• 2010/02/01: BBC: [UK] Plans for green energy cashback
  Plans to reward eco-friendly householders for the green energy that their solar panels produce have received a muted welcome. The clean energy cashback plan, known as "feed-in tariffs", offers incentives from April for those who install small scale renewables on their homes. The government claims one in 10 homeowners could fit panels or small wind turbines by 2020. But the scheme has been criticised as not generous enough.

And in Europe:

• 2010/02/04: EnvFin: EU to fund carbon capture with 300m emissions allowances
• 2010/02/05: EurActiv: EU 'wise men' chief wants more rail, less road
• 2010/02/05: BBerg: RWE, Cutting CO2 Output, to Sell Stake in Coal Plant
  RWE AG plans to sell a stake in a coal-fired power plant valued at as much as 80 million euros ($110 million) as Germany's second-largest utility seeks to lower carbon emissions. The utility plans to sell its 24.6 percent holding in the 508-megawatt power station in Rostock...
• 2010/02/04: BBerg: Germany's Solar-Energy Industry Predicts 44% Cut in [FIT] Power Price
• 2010/02/04: EurActiv: EU agrees billions to fund renewables, CCS
  EU member states this week (2 February) agreed how to allocate billions worth of EU money from the bloc's emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) to support renewable energies and emerging technology to capture carbon dioxide and store it underground. After a year of negotiations to fine-tune the details, national experts approved a proposal on how to use 300 million emission allowances from the scheme's 'new entrants reserve' to finance projects in renewables and CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage).
• 2010/02/04: EUO: EU surmounts carbon capture impasse
  European Union member states have come to agreement on the division of spoils in the bloc's plan to launch a controversial technology to bury carbon underground or under the sea bed. In 2008, EU countries backed a proposal from the European Parliament on how to support the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) that would see the sale of 300 million carbon permits through the emissions trading scheme funding a dozen pilot projects around the union.
• 2010/02/04: EUO: Palm oil plantations are now 'forests,' says EU
  The European Commission and some EU member states hope to redefine palm oil plantations as "forests," according to a leaked document from the EU executive.
• 2010/02/02: EurActiv: Biofuels industry set to suffer from lack of green rules
  The EU's current indecision on environmental criteria for biomass could discredit the whole industry, which lives off its climate-friendly image, Eric Johnson, managing director of Atlantic Consulting, told EurActiv in an interview.
• 2010/02/03: PlanetArk: EU Agrees To Split Billions For Green Power, Coal
• 2010/02/03: PlanetArk: German FDP Opposes Solar Incentive Cuts
  Germany's Free Democrats, junior coalition partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right government, are opposed to proposals by the Environment Ministry to cut solar power incentives, an FDP lawmaker said Tuesday. Michael Kauch, an environment policy expert in the FDP, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung proposed cuts by Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen were too great and said the proposed cuts would harm the German solar power sector.
• 2010/02/02: ScienceInsider: Off the Roof, but Italy's Environmental Scientists Remain Unhappy
• 2010/02/01: PlanetArk: Italy Solar Industry Wants Improved Incentive Plan

  Meanwhile in Australia:

• 2010/02/05: ABC(Au): Farrer MP Sussan Ley says the Opposition's climate change policy will be good for intensive rural industries that have been labelled 'dirty polluters'
• 2010/02/06: Australian: Australia out of step on emissions trading scheme
• 2010/02/04: ABC(Au): The Coalition's climate change plan would cost taxpayers $27 billion to achieve the same cuts as the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS), Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.
• 2010/02/04: ABC(Au): The Chamber of Minerals and Energy has rejected the call for a public inquiry into proposed uranium projects in Western Australia
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): Emissions to rise 13pc under Coalition: [Assistant Climate Change Minister Greg] Combet
  The Federal Government has stepped up its attack on the Opposition's climate change policy, releasing departmental advice that says the plan would lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The Coalition's plan is based on an emissions reduction fund which provides incentives to businesses to cut their emissions. But a Climate Change Department briefing concludes that the fund would result in emissions rising 13 per cent by 2020.
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): Rudd rattled on climate change: Abbott
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is hopeful farmers will benefit under the federal Coalition's climate change plan
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): The Wollongong City Council has begun to scope out the impact of future sea level rises on the city by hiring a consultant to prepare a plan
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): Environmentalists and indigenous groups have denounced a government plan to build the world's third largest hydroelectric dam in the Amazon river basin, which they claim will devastate the region
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): Tasmania can meet emissions reduction target: report
• 2010/02/03: CCurrents: Letter To Australia re Climate Denialism, Biofuel Genocide And Climate Genocide
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): Opposition Leader Tony Abbott plans to meet high-profile controversial climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton, who will be visiting Canberra over the next few days
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): The Federal Government has challenged Opposition MPs to "show courage" by joining their former leader Malcolm Turnbull in crossing the floor on climate change policy
• 2010/02/02: ABC(Au): Coalition plan a 'climate con job'
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has savaged the Coalition's new climate change plan as an unfunded con job that will slug taxpayers and do nothing to reduce carbon emissions. He has also attacked Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as a climate change sceptic who has changed his policy position more times than he has "changed his undies". Mr Abbott faced Mr Rudd for the first time as Opposition Leader in Question Time today as the two sought to discredit each other's climate change policies.
• 2010/02/02: ABC(Au): Call for separate Torres sea level funding
  The Torres Strait Regional Authority has criticised the Queensland Government over its plan to protect the region from rising sea levels. The Member for Cook, Jason O'Brien, has suggested diverting funds from the Torres Strait's $56 million major infrastructure projects program to address flooding problems.
• 2010/02/02: ABC(Au): Abbott unveils climate change policy
  Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has placed a $1 billion emissions reduction fund at the heart of the Coalition's new $3.2b climate change policy. Announcing the policy today, Mr Abbott said the Coalition would use the fund and its policy to invest in direct measures to help the public, industry and farmers cut emissions. Those measures would include planting 20 million trees, a $1,000 solar panel rebate and soil carbon storage. Mr Abbott said the plan would be simpler, cheaper and more effective than the Government's emissions trading scheme and would deliver the same 5 per cent cut in emissions by 2020.
• 2010/02/02: ABC(Au): Rudd rallies the troops as Abbott gains ground
  Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says there is no doubt Labor will have to fight hard to win this year's election, as the Coalition claws back voter support in the latest opinion poll.
• 2010/02/01: ABC(Au): Miner up-beat about cutting carbon footprint
  Coal & Allied says a trial of its coal bed gas project has proved so successful it will be rolled out across other mines in the Hunter Valley within eight weeks.
• 2010/02/01: ABC(Au): Impact of ETS on food costs 'minimal'
  A new report has found failing to tackle climate change will have a greater impact on supermarket prices than an emissions trading scheme (ETS). The report from independent think-tank the Climate Institute found extreme weather events, caused by climate change, will lead to food price rises in the future.
• 2010/02/01: Reuters: Gloom gathers around divisive Australia CO2 laws
  Reviled by conservatives and rejected by swing voting senators, Australia's plan for the world's most comprehensive emissions scheme appears dead in 2010, hurting investment plans for businesses wanting carbon clarity.
• 2010/02/01: BBerg: Rudd Takes Up Fight With 'Mad Monk' on Australian Climate Bill

  And in New Zealand:

• 2010/02/05: HotTopic: Dominion Post editorial as shaky as Herald's
• 2010/02/03: HotTopic: [NZ] Herald censures IPCC on flimsy grounds

  While in the Indian subcontinent:

• 2010/02/04: NYT:CW: India's Roaring Economy Is Hitched to a Galloping Addiction to Coal
• 2010/02/04: TCoE: India's coal time bomb
• 2010/02/04: Telegraph(UK): India forms new climate change body [National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology]

  And China:

• 2010/02/06: NBF: China Indicates They Will Not be Locked to a Lower Economic Level by Taking Lower Per Capita Greenhouse Gases

  Elsewhere in Asia:

• 2010/02/06: PeakEnergy: Afghan 'geological reserves worth a trillion dollars'
• 2010/02/03: Reuters: South Korea expects renewable energy investment at $4.8 bln in 2010

  And South America:

• 2010/02/07: BBC: Brazil nun accused 'back in jail'
  A landowner accused of ordering the murder of American nun Dorothy Stang in the Amazon in 2005 is reported to be back in jail after turning himself in. Vitalmiro Bastos Moura was originally convicted for the killing in 2007. The verdict was overturned a year later but he is now due to face a retrial. The killing in Para state caused an outcry in Brazil and internationally. Dorothy Stang, 73, campaigned to preserve the rainforest and protect the rights of rural workers.
• 2010/02/02: BBC: Huge Brazil dam on the Xingu river moves step closer
  Brazil's government has granted an environmental licence for the construction of a controversial hydro-electric dam in the Amazon rainforest. Environmental groups say the Belo Monte dam will cause devastation in a large area of the rainforest and threaten the survival of indigenous groups.

In Canada, minority neocon PM Harper, continues his do-nothing policy:

• 2010/02/01: BBerg: Canada Target for Climate Change Too Weak, Groups Say
• 2010/02/02: TEC: Canada's Proposal for Global Warming Actions Needs Lots of Work
• 2010/02/02: PlanetArk: Canada To Tout Oil Sands In Emission Cut Plans
  The Canadian government will keep supporting development of Alberta's oil sands while it follows the U.S. lead on setting targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the country's environment minister said on Monday.
• 2010/02/01: CanWest: Clean up your act, oilsands: Environment Minister Prentice
  Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice served notice Monday that energy companies and the Alberta government must improve their environmental vigilance - along with Canada's reputation - on oilsands development and better communicate those efforts to the global community.
• 2010/02/02: AD: Obnoxious emissions [Prentice]
• 2010/02/01: CBC: Oilsands jeopardize Canada's reputation: Prentice
  Canada risks becoming the international poster child of unsound resource development if it doesn't do a better job of developing the oilsands, says federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice.
• 2010/02/02: TStar: While U.S. looks ahead, we drift backwards
  Some coincidences are too delicious. On the very morning this week that Canadians woke to find they have new, even lower greenhouse gas emission targets, Americans learned that China is surging ahead in the renewable energy race.
• 2010/02/01: HillTimes: Environmental groups losing interest in lobbying Prentice
  Frustration is mounting that the government has locked itself into an environmental policy bunker on climate change.
• 2010/01/31: THW: Strong on doing nothing [Harper]

  Regarding Canada's Copenhagen Accord pledge:

• 2010/02/01: TreeHugger: Oh Canada, Your Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Pledge is Actually an Increase
• 2010/02/01: G&M: Canada ties new emissions-cuts targets to U.S. goals
• 2010/02/03: CFO: Mixed welcome for Copenhagen Accord pledges
  Carbon market participants have given a mixed reception to the proposed emissions cuts and mitigation actions pledged under the Copenhagen Accord. By the 31 January deadline, 55 countries accounting for 78% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions had notified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat of their reduction targets or mitigation plans. NGO US Climate Action Network last night said this had risen to 87 countries, representing just over 80% of global emissions. Most of the pledged cuts or limitation plans are little changed from those announced pre-Copenhagen. The one notable exception is Canada, which has changed its target to match that of the US, for a 17% cut on 2005 levels by 2020 -- in effect, allowing the country's GHGs to grow by 3% compared with 1990 emissions. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada committed to cut its emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012, a target since abandoned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Yes we have meetings in the Arctic, which accomplish...?

• 2010/02/03: CanWest: Canada to host Arctic summit in March
  Canada is angling to assume a leadership role in international polar affairs by convening a meeting of Arctic foreign ministers in March ahead of a G8 gathering to be held in Quebec, Canwest News Service has learned. The Arctic summit, scheduled to take place just north of Ottawa in Chelsea, Que., is aimed at encouraging "new thinking on economic development and environmental protection" in a way that would allow the five Arctic Ocean coastal states - Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark and the U.S. - to exploit opportunities for oil and gas production while preserving fragile ecosystems, according to a statement to be released Wednesday by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.
• 2010/02/02: G&M: Canada using Inuit as political tool at summit, critics say

  One good way to avoid doing anything is to start a fight between different levels of government:

• 2010/02/04: G&M: As Charest heats up battle over climate change, Tories stand to lose in Quebec
  Global warming is fracturing national politics as Ottawa and Quebec escalate a word war over federal reluctance to act against climate change.
• 2010/02/05: TStar: Hébert: Tory déjà vu: It's Quebec vs. Alberta
  There is a perfect federal-provincial storm brewing on the climate-change horizon in Canada and it is bringing to the fore the very kind of irreconcilable regional differences that once doomed Brian Mulroney's Tory government.
• 2010/02/04: G&M: Quebec's rift with Ottawa over climate change grows
  In India on trade mission, Premier Charest bristles at criticism of Quebec's environmental efforts by Environment Minister Prentice
• 2010/02/03: G&M: Ottawa accused of caving to auto industry
  Harper government has lost resolve to push tough environmental standards on new vehicles, Quebec says
• 2010/02/03: CBC: [Quebec Premier Jean] Charest: Prentice bowing to U.S. on climate change
  Quebec Premier Jean Charest accused the federal government on Wednesday of having few ideas to fight climate change beyond kowtowing to the United States.
• 2010/02/03: CanWest: Tories fail to back emissions claims -- Accused of fear-mongering over Quebec plan to crack down on car pollution
  The Harper government defended its criticism of Quebec's climate-change plan yesterday, but was unable to produce evidence to back its warnings of catastrophic economic consequences from the province's crackdown on pollution from cars.
• 2010/02/02: CanWest: Prentice raps Quebec on emissions -- Federal minister decries strict limits
  Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice took a swing at Quebec yesterday in a speech in Calgary...
  [...]
  "One of the most glaring examples of the folly of attempting to go it alone in an integrated North American economy is the new, and unique, vehicle regulations introduced by Quebec," he said.

BC has the winter olympics, lots of rain and a huge gas plant:

• 2010/02/03: Tyee: Huge Gas Plant Approved Despite Emissions Spike
  It will boost BC's carbon output three per cent, but cap-and-trade can offset, says Premier. A mammoth shale gas processing plant is lumbering ahead in northeastern B.C., but a proposal to implement carbon capture and storage (CCS) at the site appears dead in its tracks. The province's effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions is on course to suffer a 2.17 megatonne-per-year setback, after an environmental assessment (EA) certificate was approved for the $800-million Cabin Gas Plant last Thursday (Jan. 28). The green light to the EnCana-led project signals the onset of a shale gas boom in the million-acre Horn River Basin north of Fort Nelson.
• 2010/02/03: CBC: Olympics get bronze for climate impact [from Suzuki]
• 2010/02/02: CBC: Olympic site gets snow trucked from afar -- Cypress Mountain still soggy

  Meanwhile in that Mechanical Mordor known as the tar sands:

• 2010/02/03: G&M: Energy giants battle over costs of tar sands pipeline
  Suncor and Imperial Oil launch legal effort in the U.S. against Enbridge over new pipeline that they say is not needed and will increase tolls In the latest fallout from the oil sands euphoria-gone-bust, a legal battle has erupted between three of Canada's most important energy companies. Suncor Energy Inc. SU-T and Imperial Oil Ltd. IMO-T are accusing Enbridge Inc. ENB-T of overbuilding pipeline capacity into the U.S. at a time when it's not needed, and are looking to escape the increase in tolls that will come once Alberta Clipper, a major new crude pipeline, enters service later this year. Although the oil sands construction frenzy ended in 2008, it has left behind a number of festering problems. A glut of pipeline capacity is among the more serious remnants. In a bid to duck the possibility of billions in extra tolls that could result, Suncor and Imperial have filed nearly 500 pages of documents with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, laying out a plan to force Enbridge Inc. to give them a break on pipeline rates into the U.S.
• 2010/02/06: OilChange: Big oil's race to the bottom is underway and tar sands producers have a head start
• 2010/02/02: OilChange: Canada's Reputation "At Risk" Over Tar Sands
• 2010/02/03: RustyIdols: I'm sure they're shivering in their loafers
• 2010/02/02: CBC: Suncor profit rises to $457M
  [...] Suncor, known as a top oilsands operator, became the biggest energy company in Canada after its merger with former Crown corporation Petro-Canada in August
• 2010/02/02: CanWest: Limit development of oilsands or caribou doomed, officials told -- Governments urged to protect boreal forest habitat
  The oilsands could wipe out threatened woodland caribou populations in northern Alberta if regulators fail to protect the boreal forest and its surrounding habitat, warn experts from government, industry and academic sectors. In a letter sent today to the Stelmach and Harper governments, a conservation group said decision makers must listen to the advice of their own experts and restrict oilsands development in at least half of the region. "It may not be easy, but we think it is possible for you to reconcile the interests of both habitat conservation and the industry in the oilsands area -- if you take a clear stand and act decisively now," said the letter, written by Helene Walsh, boreal conservation director at the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

As for miscellaneous Canadiana:

• 2010/02/06: CBC: Graham defends minister's ouster over NB Power
  Premier Shawn Graham says he had "no choice" but to ask Tourism and Parks Minister Stuart Jamieson to resign from cabinet for suggesting the proposed deal between NB Power and Hydro-Québec be put to a referendum.
• 2010/02/04: CBC: Nunavut proposes Baffin Island caribou survey
• 2010/02/03: PhysOrg: New Canadian solar photovoltaic research network established [based at McMaster University]
• 2010/02/02: CBC: Sask., Man., to study inter-provincial energy sharing

  The movement toward a long term ecologically viable economics is glacial:

• 2010/02/04: EnergyBulletin: There is no return to self-sustaining growth [James K. Galbraith interview]
• 2010/02/03: EnergyBulletin: Economic Growth And Climate Change -- No Way Out?
• 2010/02/01: EnergyBulletin: Are We Yeast in a Wine Vat? Reflections on Sustainability
• 2010/02/01: Guardian(UK): 82 months and counting...
  If economics was subject to the same evidence-based scrutiny as climate change, our world would be run very differently

Apocalypso anyone?

• 2010/02/05: OilDrum: Energy Flow, Emergent Complexity, and Collapse
• 2010/02/05: EnergyBulletin: How to talk to your friends about climate change

  As for how the media handles the science of climatology:

• 2010/02/06: CJR: "Waves in a Shallow Pan" -- Has climate coverage in the MSM lost its authority?
• 2010/02/05: Deltoid: Reporting about 2035 error full of errors
• 2010/02/04: Deltoid: Leakegate scandal grows
• 2010/02/04: Deltoid: [Jonathan] Leakegate
• 2010/02/03: Guardian(UK): Our licence fees pay for climate denial
  The BBC spouts rightwing bias while ignoring environmental science. So why not give other conspiracies a platform too?
• 2010/02/03: ClimateShifts: Another Great Barrier Reef wipeout by The Australian
• 2010/02/03: DM:CCM: Another Science Newsroom Cut, And a Big One
• 2010/02/02: DM:CCM: Why We're Losing the News
• 2010/02/01: Stoat: Do not trust the Torygraph, for it is Tory
• 2010/02/01: BCLSB: National Post: One Editorial, Two Falsehoods

  Regarding the quality of blogospheric discussion:

• 2010/02/04: MTobis: The Morano Effect

  Here is something for your library:

• 2010/02/03: EnergyBulletin: [Book Review] _Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization_ by Jeff Rubin
• 2010/02/02: HotTopic: [Book Review] _The Rising Sea_ by Orrin Pilkey & Rob Young
• 2010/02/01: EnergyBulletin: A Review of 'Climate Cover-up' by James Hoggan
• 2010/01/31: EnergyBulletin: The bottleneck century [Book Review] _Bottleneck: Humanity's Impending Impasse_ by William Catton, Jr.

  Meanwhile among the 'Sue the Bastards!' contingent:

• 2010/02/03: SF Gate: Oil, trucking interests sue over 2011 fuel law
  A coalition of oil companies, the trucking industry and others have filed a lawsuit in federal court in an attempt to block the implementation of a first-in-the-world limit on the amount of carbon allowed in fuel approved by California regulators last year. The suit, filed in federal court in Fresno, seeks an injunction to stop the implementation of the regulation, which is set to take effect next year. The so-called low-carbon fuel standard requires fuel manufacturers to cut the carbon intensity of fuels sold in the state 10 percent by 2020 - lowering the amount of greenhouse gases released for every unit of energy produced.
• 2010/02/03: LA Times: Industries sue to void California's low-carbon fuel regulations
  The suit by the oil and trucking industries alleges that the rules discriminate against corn ethanol and Canadian crude oil. A state official calls the suit 'shameful.'
• 2010/02/02: NYT: Oil, Trucking Industries Sue Calif. Over Fuel Rule
• 2010/02/03: TP:WR: Dr. Seuss Enterprises Sends Cease-And-Desist To Dirty Coal Company LoraxAg
• 2010/02/01: WarmingLaw: New York Settles Indeck Lawsuit Challenging RGGI

  Wrestling over a new energy infrastructure continues unabated:

• 2010/02/07: ABC(Au): Green overhaul for coal-fired power station
  One of Australia's biggest electricity generators says it hopes to convert its Yallourn power station from brown coal to gas in the next 10 to 20 years.
• 2010/02/05: Reuters: China wind, solar co's seek growth in U.S., Europe
  Chinese wind and solar companies told a renewable energy conference on Thursday they were looking abroad for burgeoning markets in renewable energy.
• 2010/02/04: Ecologist: New wind power tops all other sources in 2009
  Wind and solar technology made up over half of Europe's new electricity generating capacity in 2009, as the number of new coal and nuclear facilities fell
• 2010/02/06: PeakEnergy: Norway's Hammerfest Strom gets UK tidal power grant
• 2010/02/06: NBF: Thermoelectic Updates
• 2010/02/04: EnvFin: UK introduces feed-in tariff for small-scale renewables
• 2010/02/05: EurActiv: ExxonMobil sees sharp natural gas growth in US, Europe
  Presenting its annual energy outlook for 2030, US energy giant ExxonMobil has predicted a surge in demand for natural gas, especially in Western countries that are adopting policies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. The report, presented in Brussels on Tuesday (2 February), foresees fossil fuels meeting 80% of the world's energy demand by 2030, mainly due to surging consumption in the developing world.
• 2010/02/05: EarthTimes: Russia [Total, Gazprom & Statoil] delays oil extraction from Shtokmann fields by three years
• 2010/02/05: Eureka: Renewable oil companies
  The entry of oil companies into the realm of renewable energy could present major obstacles for the development of a sustainable economy that is not based on carbon resources, according to a report in the International Journal of Green Economics.
• 2010/02/04: KSJT: SF Chron, NYTimes (Greenwire): New powerplant must live with greenhouse cap. Coal? Nope.
• 2010/02/03: ClimateP: Debunking False Energy Claims
• 2010/02/04: PhysOrg: 5 Sources of Alternative Energy You May Not Have Heard Of
• 2010/02/04: Grist: Feed-in tariffs legal in U.S. when certain conditions met
• 2010/02/04: TreeHugger: Green Gas Controversy: Renewable Pioneer vs Major Utility
• 2010/02/04: BBC: Weak oil demand hits Shell profit
  Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has reported a sharp fall in profits due to falling demand for oil from a weak global economy. Profits between October and December last year were $1.2bn (£755m), down by 75% from the $4.8bn the company made a year earlier. For the full year, Shell made $9.8bn, compared with $31.4bn in 2008.
• 2010/02/03: PlanetArk: UK Tidal Power Projects To Share $35 Mln Grant
  Six promising marine energy technologies will share 22 million pounds ($35.04 million) of UK government funding to speed up deployment of full scale prototypes, the Carbon Trust said on Tuesday.
• 2010/02/02: OilChange: Is Hydrogen Research Driven by Fantasy?
• 2010/02/02: AutoBG: Study: hydrogen proponents rely on "five distinct fantasy themes"
• 2010/02/03: BBC: Fears over future power shortages
  Mainland Britain could face power shortages in the years ahead, according to the energy regulator, Ofgem. The regulator also warned that a significant number of consumers may not be able to afford the higher energy prices they would have to face. Ofgem said there was "reasonable doubt" about whether the energy market would be able to deliver sustainable supplies in the coming decade. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband expressed confidence in supply needs being met.
• 1977/04/25: Time: Time Essay: The Nightmare Life Without Fuel by Isaac Asimov
• 2010/02/02: EnergyBulletin: Energy Quiz: What renewable fuel delivers the most net energy?
• 2010/02/02: Grist: Large-scale distributed energy is here: Recurrent Energy signs 50MW power purchase agreement
• 2010/02/01: Grist: Why senators don't see the clean energy boom
  You might not have heard, because almost nobody reported it, but new clean-energy projects attracted more global funding in 2008 than fossil-fuel projects did. For the first time ever, investors put more money in solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower than in fuels that must be burned, according to a U.N. report. And when venture-capital funding tanked in 2009 because of the recession, cleantech weathered the downturn better than any other sector. People with money to invest are choosing clean energy over dirty. But lawmakers who shape energy legislation are not, quite possibly because they don't don't have a good understanding of the energy landscape. Because they spend their weekends with oil lobbyists.
• 2010/02/02: BBC: BP profit hit by lower oil prices
  Oil giant BP has reported a 45% drop in annual profit due to lower oil and gas prices and depressed refining margins. Its replacement cost profit for 2009 was $13.96bn (£8.75bn), compared with $25.59bn in 2008. The company said that its oil and gas production increased more than 4% in 2009 and its reserves had grown for the 17th year in a row.
• 2010/02/01: PeakEnergy: Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES): Part 2
• 2010/02/01: OilChange: As violence starts again, Shell off-loads Nigerian assets
• 2010/01/31: SolveClimate: PG&E Approved for $50 Million Compressed Air Energy Storage Project
• 2010/02/01: BBC: US oil giant Exxon Mobil has reported a 23% drop in profits...
  Exxon made a net profit of $6.05bn (£3.8bn) in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with the $7.82bn it made in the same period in 2008.
• 2010/02/01: BBC: Energy giant Gazprom has reported a 34% drop in profit...
  The company reported a net profit of 479bn roubles ($15.8bn; £9.9bn) for the first nine months of 2009, down from a 752bn-rouble profit the previous year. [...] Total volumes of gas sold fell by 17%.
• 2010/02/01: CBC: Exxon profit 23% lower in Q4
  Exxon Mobil says its fourth-quarter earnings tumbled 23 per cent to $6.05 billion US during the final three months of 2009.
• 2010/01/31: GG&G: Green Inc. at the New York Times tells us that cheaper renewable energy is a bad thing

  Fracking is back:

• 2010/02/01: NRDC:SwitchBoard: Shareholder resolutions ask for safer hydraulic fracturing

  The answer my friend...:

• 2010/02/05: PhysOrg: Wind power capacity grows at record pace, but industry jobs actually fall
• 2010/02/05: TreeHugger: The Wind Power Boom of 2009, By the Numbers
• 2010/02/04: CleanTech: Wind beating down nuclear and coal in Europe
• 2010/02/04: EurActiv: China flies past EU, US on new wind turbines
  The global wind energy market continued to grow last year, driven by a strong push from China, which installed more new turbines than Europe and the US, according to new statistics from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
• 2010/02/03: BWeek: China doubles wind power in 1 year
• 2010/02/03: NRDC:SwitchBoard: China pulls ahead of US in Wind (Or Maybe Not?)
• 2010/02/03: OilDrum: Offshore Wind taking off - some background on installation issues

  Meanwhile among the solar aficionados:

• 2010/02/05: Grist: The little solar that could
• 2010/02/05: NBF: Nano-patterning Provides Large Boost for Solar Cells and Other Solar Improvements
• 2010/02/05: PlanetArk: Saudi Arabia to Use Sun, Not Oil, to Desalinize Its Water
• 2010/02/04: TEC: Michigan - Dow's solar powerhouse [BIPV]
• 2010/02/03: PhysOrg: New Canadian solar photovoltaic research network established [based at McMaster University]
• 2010/02/03: PlanetArk: Recurrent Energy, California Utility In Solar Pact
• 2010/02/02: LA Times:GS: California solar: Use it or lose it
• 2010/02/02: PhysOrg: Sunny Record: Breakthrough for Hybrid Solar Cells
  German scientists at the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) and the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF) have succeeded in developing a method for treating the surface of nanoparticles which greatly improves the efficiency of organic solar cells. The researchers were able to attain an efficiency of 2 percent by using so-called quantum dots composed of cadmium selenide. These measurements, well above the previous efficiency ratings of 1 to 1.8 percent, were confirmed by the "Dye and Organic Solar Cells" research group of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems at the FMF.
• 2010/02/01: Yale360: It's Green Against Green In Mojave Desert Solar Battle

  On the coal front:

• 2010/02/05: CSM: Centralia, Pa., coal fire is one of hundreds that burn in the U.S.
  The underground coal fire that has slowly consumed Centralia, Pa., isn't unusual. Many such fires burn around the world.
• 2010/02/06: BBC: Australia in huge China coal deal
  An Australian firm has signed a $60bn (AUS$69bn; £38bn) deal to supply coal to Chinese power stations. Clive Palmer, chairman of the company, Resourcehouse, said it was Australia's "biggest ever export contract". Under the deal, the firm will build a new mining complex to give China Power International Development (CPI) 30m tonnes of coal a year for 20 years.
• 2010/02/02: NYT: Massey Energy Reports Lower Q4 Profit
  Coal producer Massey Energy Co. said Tuesday a steep drop in sales cut its fourth quarter profit by more than half. Massey said Tuesday it earned $24.4 million, or 28 cents per share, in the final three months of 2009.

Biofuel bickering abounds:

• 2010/02/05: PlanetArk: Valero [Energy Corp] Closing On 10th Ethanol Plant
• 2010/02/04: PlanetArk: Brazil Hopes Shell-Cosan Can Boost Ethanol Exports
• 2010/02/03: PeakEnergy: Biofuels: the Biggest Supply Response to the 2000s Oil Shock
• 2010/02/02: NatureTGB: Shell plumps for Brazilian ethanol
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: Shell Invests $1.6 Billion+ in Brazilian Biofuels - Will Become One of World's Largest Ethanol Producers
• 2010/02/01: ScienceInsider: Shell Oil Bets on Brazilian Biofuels
• 2010/02/01: AutoBG: Study: algae biofuels not the easy, green biofuel answer - yet
• 2010/02/01: AutoBG: Surprise: U.S. ethanol producers set production record at 761,000 barrels a day

  The nuclear energy controversy continues:

• 2010/02/06: TCoE: Tritium for everyone!
• 2010/02/05: CleanBreak: Nuclear power "renaissance" not the expansion boom the industry expected
• 2010/02/05: NBF: A Critique of the Canadian Think Tank Report That Claims There Will be No Nuclear Energy Revival Before 2030
• 2010/02/05: NatureN: Delays prompt reshuffle at ITER fusion project -- Interim director appointed to Europe's part of programme
• 2010/02/05: PlanetArk: Nuclear Renaissance Could Stall, Canada Group Says
  Expectations of a sharp rise in nuclear generating capacity over the next two decades are likely overblown, a Canadian think tank said on Thursday, disputing conventional wisdom that a nuclear renaissance is in full swing. In a report based on a 3-1/2 year study of the nuclear industry, the Waterloo, Ontario-based Center for International Governance Innovation said new reactor construction will be held back by a series of economic, security, and waste disposal issues.
• 2010/02/05: TEC: Evidence of the Nuclear Renaissance
• 2010/02/05: CanWest: Nuclear energy expansion unlikely: study
  _Nuclear Energy and Global Governance to 2030: An Action Plan_ by the Centre for International Governance Innovation
• 2010/02/04: KSJT: AP, NYTimes, etc: Tritium leaks at Vermont Yankee rile neighbors, politicians, regulators
• 2010/02/04: TCoE: More on nuclear leaks
  [...] As far fetched as it sounds, the Associated Press recently reported that at least 27 of 104 nuclear reactors across the United States are leaking potentially dangerous levels of tritium into the groundwater around the plants.
• 2010/02/04: TEC: PBMR [Pebble Bed Modular Reactor] Status Update - Memorandum of Understanding With Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI)
• 2010/02/01: TEC: Areva peers into the future of nuclear energy
• 2010/01/31: TCoE: Infonugget: Nuclear leaks

  Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

• 2010/02/06: PeakEnergy: BP Boss On Peak Oil
• 2010/02/05: TEC: Peak oil never sleeps
• 2010/02/04: EnergyBulletin: Peak oil in Davos: Oh yes it is, oh no it isn't.
• 2010/02/05: CChange: Depletion of Key Resources: Facts at Your Fingertips
• 2010/02/04: OilDrum: World Oil Capacity to Peak in 2010 Says Petrobras CEO
• 2010/02/04: OilChange: BP: Peak Demand Will Happen Before Peak Supply
• 2010/02/03: EnergyBulletin: The peak oil crisis: revisiting the electric car

  More people are talking about the electrical grid:

• 2010/02/06: PeakEnergy: Smart Grids - Smart at the Edge, Dumb In the Middle?
• 2010/02/04: EurActiv: Smart grids to enable renewables at 'moderate' cost
  The EU could be powered almost entirely by renewable energies in 2050 without power disruptions by adding intelligence to its existing grids and building new cross-border connections, according to a study by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), an industry group.
• 2010/02/04: SF Gate: To get clean energy, upgrade to Electricity 2.0
  [...]
  Put simply, only by upgrading from Electricity 1.0 - the closed, highly regulated network created a century ago - to Electricity 2.0 - an open, distributed network - can America unlock the potential of clean technology and experience a renewable energy revolution.
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: DOE Report Says Smart Grid Can Cut US Emissions by 12% (Video)
• 2010/02/02: TreeHugger: Chinese Gov't to Spend More on Smart Grid Projects than U.S. in 2010
• 2010/02/01: EurActiv: EU plans grid upgrade for renewables
  The European Commission is working on a framework for developing Europe's electricity grids to integrate the massive increase in renewable energy expected in the next decade, a senior official said last week (28 January).

And then there is the matter of efficiency & conservation:

• 2010/02/05: TEC: Tom has a new crush. It's called the WattVision Energy Monitor
• 2010/02/05: PhysOrg: Super material will make lighting cheaper and fully recyclable
  With the use of the new super material graphene, Swedish and American researchers have succeeded in producing a new type of lighting component. It is inexpensive to produce and can be fully recycled. The invention, which paves the way for glowing wallpaper made entirely of plastic, is published in the scientific journal ACS Nano ...
• 2010/02/04: Eureka: Habit-learning device will lower energy bills under new clean energy cashback scheme
  Smart control units that learn householders' energy habits and provide immediate feedback on consumption could give home energy savings of up to 20% without compromising comfort.

Automakers & lawyers, engineers & activists argue over the future of the car:

• 2010/02/06: OilDrum: Meet Trev: A two-seater renewable energy vehicle
• 2010/02/06: DerSpiegel: Severe Slump -- German Auto Sales Crash in January
  Domestic car sales hit an all-time high in Germany in 2009 thanks to the government's cash-for-clunkers program. Now that the program is over, however, sales have plummeted. Is the worst still to come?
• 2010/02/05: PhysOrg: Cars of the future could be powered by their bodywork thanks to new battery technology
• 2010/02/04: AutoBG: Greenlings: What's a light-duty truck, and why should we care?
• 2010/02/03: CBC: Honda quarterly profit good omen
  [...] Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday it booked net profit equivalent to $1.57 billion Cdn for the October-December quarter. [...] For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Honda sold 914,000 vehicles around the world, down 2.8 per cent from 940,000 vehicles a year earlier...
• 2010/02/02: CalcRisk: U.S. Light Vehicle Sales 10.8 Million SAAR in January
• 2010/02/02: CalcRisk: Ford: January sales rise 25% Compared to 2009
• 2010/02/01: PhysOrg: In winter's chill, cold batteries mean trouble for plug-in cars
• 2010/01/31: NYT: An Electric Boost for Bicyclists

  Insurance and re-insurance companies are feeling the heat:

• 2010/02/01: NYT:CW: Insurance Regulators in Indiana Reject Climate Regulation; Some Others Appear 'Lukewarm'
  Indiana officials will not impose climate regulations on insurance companies, making it the first state to abandon the landmark measure before it goes into effect nationwide this spring. Several other states are also signaling hesitancy to administer the 12-question survey aimed at gauging the multibillion-dollar industry's readiness for the potential of rising claims from earthly catastrophes and investments battered by proposed energy regulation. The growing trepidations come as survey supporters are trying to gather commitments from states to put the regulation into play. Time is growing short. Companies are required to respond by May 1. Yet doubts among regulators about the impacts of climate change and their ability to do anything about them are laying cracks in the road to enactment.

Joe Romm posts a daily list of top energy and climate stories:

• 2010/02/05: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 5...
• 2010/02/04: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 4...
• 2010/02/03: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 3...
• 2010/02/02: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 2...
• 2010/02/01: ClimateP: Energy and Global Warming News for February 1st...

  Other (weekly) lists:

• 2010/02/04: Grist: A Walk Through the Week's Climate News -- The Climate Post: In which it feels like everything has come to a full stop

  The carbon lobby are up to the usual:

• 2010/02/06: Deltoid: It is so on -- I [Tim Lambert] will be debating Christopher Monckton this Friday
• 2010/02/06: Deltoid: Andrew Bolt in one graph
• 2010/02/07: IJI: Understanding the inactivist mind --- beyond seeking "common ground"
• 2010/02/06: MTobis: Lies for Nerds, Propaganda that Matters
• 2010/02/06: DeSmogBlog: McIntyre and McKitrick Unmasked
• 2010/02/06: TPL: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): Robin McKie v Benny Peiser
• 2010/02/06: TheAge: Debunking the myths behind the pontificating potty peer
• 2010/02/06: Deltoid: Monckton in Australia
• 2010/02/05: MTobis: Grim amusement...look at this stuff. Where did all this craziness come from?
• 2010/02/05: ERabett: Betroffenheitstroll [3 amigos]
• 2010/01/21: YaleCMF: 'Extraordinary Claims' in KUSI Broadcast On NOAA, NASA ... but 'Extraordinary Evidence'?
• 2010/02/04: TPL: Yet another chapter in the continuing saga "As the Denialists Spin"
• 2010/02/04: Stoat: Who is William A. Sprigg, Ph.D.?
• 2010/02/04: ClimateSight: A Good Batch of News
• 2010/02/04: DeepClimate: Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, part 1: In the beginning
• 2010/02/04: PeakEnergy: Monckton's Melbourne meeting: a gathering of old men in Richie Benaud blazers
• 2010/02/04: TWTB: Yes, Rush Limbaugh IS a creationist
• 2010/02/04: IoD: Why the denial camp is winning (and we're all losing) the climate wars
• 2010/02/03: ABC(Au): Visiting British climate change commentator Christopher Monckton has attacked the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS), arguing part of it is unconstitutional
• 2010/02/03: AFTIC: Ducking like a quack
• 2010/02/03: JQuiggin: Ignoring the elephant
• 2010/02/03: Deltoid: The Australian's War on Science 44
• 2010/02/03: Deltoid: Monckton meets The Castle
• 2010/02/02: IoD: More distractions on the climate front
• 2010/02/02: ClimateShifts: Much ado about nothing,,,a well organised and well funded denialist movement...
• 2010/02/01: ClimateShifts: Bolt gets it wrong (yet again)
• 2010/02/02: DeSmogBlog: Monbiot rips Plimer and Plimer blames DeSmogBlog

  Meanwhile in the 'clean coal' saga:

• 2010/02/05: DeSmogBlog: ACCCE Hires New PR Firm With Bush Ties To Push Coal

  As for climate miscellanea:

• 2010/02/07: NewScientist: Rob Hopkins: Getting over oil, one town at a time
• 2010/02/06: ClimateShifts: "Good planets are hard to come by" -- a note from Andrew Glickson
• 2010/02/07: Guardian(UK): Despite the sceptics, climate change must remain a priority
• 2010/02/05: BBC: Site 'crowdsources' climate data
  Green EU citizens are being encouraged to contribute their own environmental observations to a website. The Eye on Earth platform is a joint venture between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft. The site shows the water and air quality from the 32 member countries of EEA, displaying the results on an interactive map. The user-generated ratings are displayed alongside official data gathered by the EEA.
• 2010/02/02: MoD: Why we need to cut emissions today, not tomorrow
• 2010/02/04: ClimateP: Science magazine is confused about who is a "prominent climate scientist" -- so is Richard Tol!
• 2010/02/04: BNC: Burning the biosphere, boverty blues (Part II)
• 2010/02/03: CBC: Blogging falls out of favour with young people
  The proportion of U.S. teen and young adult internet users who blog regularly has plummeted to about 14 per cent from 28 per cent in 2006, according to a survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre. The study also found that just eight per cent of teens age 12 to 17 who use the internet report using Twitter, an indication that young people are not always the early adopters of new technology.
• 2010/02/03: JQuiggin: Well, we did do the nose ... and the hat
• 2010/02/03: TreeHugger: Potentially Amazing Technology: Is Spray-On Liquid Glass About to Make Everything Greener?
• 2010/02/02: MTobis: The Consensus
• 2010/02/03: ClimateSight: DeSmogBlog on the Road
• 2010/02/02: MongaBay: Could special bonds fund the green revolution and stabilize the climate?
• 2010/02/02: ClimateShifts: More on the IPCC and the younger dryas event
• 2010/02/02: AlterNet: How Can We Talk About Transformational Change Without Losing Hope?

  And here are a couple of sites you may find interesting and/or useful:

• GMDD: Geoscientific Model Development - Papers in Open Discussion
• GMD: Geoscientific Model Development -- An Interactive Open Access Journal of the European Geosciences Union
• CEOS: University of Manitoba: Centre for Earth Observation Science
• RETECH 2010 - Renewable Energy Technology Conference & Exhibition
• YaleCMF: Yale Climate Media Forum
• NASA: Glory - Mission Overview
• UNEP:SEFI: Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative
• The GlobGlacier Project -- The GlobGlacier projects attempts to establish a service for glacier monitoring from space...
• CI: Climate Inc.
• PotP: Politics of the Plate
• LDEO: Persistent drought in North America: a climate modeling and paleoclimate perspective
• ScienceBlogs
• Intersection
• Deltoid - Tim Lambert
• Stoat
• UK RoyalSociety: Climate change documents
• Ross Gelbspan: The Heat is Online

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk. An overview of my writing is available here.

<regards>
-het

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

"It's no longer possible to delve into our relationship with the global environment without drawing conclusions that make you seem like a raving fanatic to those who have yet to delve." -Stephan Faris

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